Hm, that’s an interesting question. Really, I might be said to have profitable hobbies rather than jobs, as such. But if you define a hobby as something I put more echoes into than I get out of… That would actually be my Orphanage. I’ve made a dissipation out of charity!
On that note… what have you poured the most echoes or resources into?
I am not much of an accountant, but I do believe the most costly of my activities has been the acquisition of my Pleasure Yacht. The price was dear, but I will not zail in anything less than decadent luxury. And I do meet the most entertaining parties with it. And the hold still smells of apples!
What do you think of the Revolutionaries?
Soran: They’re fools with an entirely twisted conception of what the word "freedom" actually means. I used to think they had some fair points when I first came to the Neath, but now… There’s definitely something sinister going on with those people. I try to avoid dealing with them.
Zero: I’m going to have to agree with my friend here; I’m no friend to Revolutionaries. I actually used to run with anarchists on the surface, so I know better than most what that ideology actually entails. It’s mob tyranny, pure and simple. And yet, however much antipathy I throw at them, I still seem to have attracted a fair-sized Revolutionary following with my political views. It’s kind of funny, really.
Cairn: Shrugs I don’t have as much of a problem with them as my colleagues here. I’m not exactly a flag pin-carrying anarchist either, but if can benefit from working with them, then I will.
Soran: How characteristically self-serving of you, Cairn. Now, if neither of you have anything more to add, I’ll ask the next question; what creature would you have as a pet if you could, but which is currently impossible to obtain?
[quote=Ami Miljkovich]what creature would you have as a pet if you could, but which is currently impossible to obtain?
[/quote]
Dragon.
Not that I’m obsessed.
Or anything.
(DragonRidingSorceress won’t meet your eyes.)
What is your favourite Neathy food?
Blinks, and when he answers, his tone is different than usual. I walk it’s paths. I map the country, and I sing its songs.
Laughs, returning to normal. Really, we can hardly afford to have a place so close and so unknown! The only defense against the Fingerkings is a good offense! And I am part of the vanguard in my working hours.
But in your dealings with those who walk in glass or shroud themselves in smoke, which do you favor, and why?
I have not yet decided, for I am fond of both Bats and Cats. (DragonRidingSorceress is lounging now, idly comfortable, and toying a quill.) Until I decide, I shall dabble in both.
What trouble have you gotten into lately?
Apparently, God’s Editors are not particularly fond of people who attempt to rewrite the bible for their own purposes. Fortunately, we were in GE under two separate names, so all is not lost.
What was your biggest mistake?
Ah, but my dear, I don’t make mistakes – I only take gambles. Once something’s a gamble, it’s for chance to decide, and you can’t be blamed for losing to chance more than any other law of nature. But if you win, that’s something glorious, isn’t? Especially when you play at long odds.
But I should only and ever gamble what’s mine. I took a gamble in the Quarter, years ago, and it was a young, brilliant cryptophilology student who had to ante up. A cave-snake came to collect.
That was my mistake.
Tell me, if you had to stake your soul for it, what would be your Heart’s Desire?
(Seeker of Names speaks only one word, but that word drips with longing.) Knowledge.
(There is a long silence before the voice within the hood speaks again.)
What is the one secret you most desire to learn?
You know, if I’d been asked 9 months ago, I’d have said “where my mother is.” Since then, well. Life has changed, and conspired to give me a new family. And I figure that, in a city where even the dead can find their way back, if she wanted to find me, she would’ve by now.
I hope that wherever she is, she was happy.
But enough of that. Maybe a question about your own families. If you could bring someone from your past to this city, who would you choose to bring? (And an optional corollary, what would you do with them?)
Soran: My beloved, who I left behind on the surface when I came here. I did try to convince them to follow me, but the thought of living in this dark place did not sit well with them. There’s no specific thing I’d want to do with them; their simple presence would be enough to make life down here a great deal more bearable. Sigh Maybe someday…
Zero: This is kind of an awkward question for me; most of the people from my past are long dead. And the one that isn’t - my aunt - I already tried to bring down here. Unfortunately, I’d apparently forgotten where I learned most of my excesses; it wasn’t long before she had to go right back up. I guess it was stupid of me to put her in danger like that, but I just wanted someone familiar around, you know?
Cairn: As for me, the only person from my past that I would care to share my Neathy life with is already right right here in front of me. Looks at Soran
Soran: Cairn, I am going to crack your skull with an armoured guinea pig if those eyes aren’t looking somewhere else within the next five seconds.
Zero: Oh, well, look at that; it’s time for another question! Let’s see, something light… Ah, I know! What’s your favourite kind of music, and has your taste in music changed much since you came to the Neath?
A question after my own heart! My love of music has been a life-long affair. I was on the pianoforte as soon as I could reach the keys. At first I made only noise, but I thrilled in the making of it; when my tutor taught me melody, I took to it as a game. You could say I practiced, you could say I worked hard, but I knew nothing of that – I loved, I played. Later I had my pick of string instruments, and I fell for the deep voice of the violoncello.
If I had a favourite, it would be music for dancing: a whirling waltz, a leaping tarantella, a tango heady as the first kiss of champagne. And opera, always opera – whether it’s Wagner’s intricate, epic gesamtkunstwerk, or Verdi’s arias sung by jesters and courtesans. And though it wasn’t proper of me, I was soon seduced by the popular songs of music halls, no less evocative to me than Verdi’s.
The Neath’s only seduced me further. I’ll always sing along to the latest bawdy lyrics from Mahogany Hall, shared in a dockside pub, or in the Parlour of Virtue. And still I love a dance! Not only the waltz, but the fiery, impossible rhythms of the Elder Country. Still I love an opera. The Neath gave me, too, the Correspondence – our cloaked friend in the corner already spoke of its curves, its enchantments, it power to express true names – and ever since The Bell and The Candle, I’ve thrown myself into expanding Tristan Bagley’s Correspondent notation system. The music it makes is sublimity itself. I love, and I play, like a wonderful game.
Now, here’s a game. Of these three, who would you wed, who would you bed, and who would you behead? Mr Wines, His Amused Lordship, Lettice the Mercy.
The Bell and The Candle! Mr. Bagley was a genius beyond genius. I would conduct if every night if I could, but ever since the first time and only time musicians are peculiarly averse to my offers of employment. But my dear Narcissus, what a wickedly subversive question you pose! His Amused Lordship, Lettice the Mercy, and Mr Wines. I know better than to admit the order of my answering, but the clever can surly figure it out.[li]
Question: As long as we are asking politically unsafe questions, ff you were to be a Master, which Master would you be? Why?
edited by Lady Sapho Byron on 11/8/2014
Well, if I read your taste in evening entertainment aright from our delightful little dalliances, I would guess that you’d wed the Mercy (the most scandalous option, too!), bed the Master, and behead the Lordship. Still, I could see you doing all three to any three.
Assuming that was your question… what’s your favorite weapon that you’ve acquired in your stay, that you won’t sell even if you get a more “effective” option?
We seem to have two answers to the same question leading to two questions to answer
I would never want to be any of the Masters, I like being myself too much
I have a vast range of weaponry probably my favourite is the Spiked Rosary, but I can’t sell it.
Question If any of the Feast of the Exceptional Rose Companions could be your spouse which one would it be?
I don’t think I could tie myself to any one spouse. Where would be the fun in that? (DragonRidingSorceress’ smile is rakish. And yet, unbelievably, the rumours say she is more Austere than Hedonistic.)
We have often heard it said that "All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." What do you think is truly meant by this?
[And on an interesting OOC note, it turns out the phrase is attributed to a Christian theologian called Julian of Norwich.]
I have seen it as a promise, but a conditional one. One must keep faith with our oaths, and never succumb to meanness. This may give us results that seem to be unpractical, or even tragic. But that must not discourage us.
There is another phrase one hears, that one must not fall in love down here. Why is that warning given, and do you plan to heed it?
A curious phrase, that. I’ve heard it before, yes. I believe it was the Duchess that told me of the Bazaar’s hunger. The warning is to not fall in love, lest ye be consumed. Of course, is it worth following? One immediately thinks of romantic love, but there is no evidence to suggest that the Bazaar’s hunger stops there. I will not sequester myself from human relation, romantic or platonic, out of fear. After all, I have no reason to fear. The Long Road awaits me.
But now it is my turn to ask. All of us, down here, seek something. We have our ambitions, our desires. What do you most want, and why? The second bit especially so, if you seek the name.
Soran: What I want most is, and has always been, to simply be allowed to follow my preferred avenues of research and expression without being marked as a pariah. It took me far too long to realize that I could never have that on the surface, but I suppose late is better than never. I do seek to play the Marvelous in between my larger activities, but, truth be told, I’m not entirely sure what my "heart’s desire" would actually be. I suppose that will be something I’ll figure out when the time comes.
Zero: What I want most is to put something nice and sharp through the gullet of the man who killed my brother. That’s a pretty understandable desire, isn’t it?
Soran: Jesus, Zero…
Zero: Hey, what that b****** did to me… That brought me about as close as I’ve ever come to breaking completely. I will make him pay if it kills me. Repeatedly.
Cairn: As for me, my desire is not so melodramatic as that of my two comrades. Simply put, my life wasn’t going so smoothly on the surface, so I came down here to find a fresh start. I want nothing more.
Soran: Hah! That’s a half-truth at best and you know it. I know exactly why you’re down here; you want to regain all the power, wealth, and influence you once had - the things that I took from you. Is that not so?
Cairn: Sigh Yet more accusations and needless suspicion? Things change; why can’t you see that?
Soran: Because you don’t. Now, I believe we’ve all given our "answers," so I’ll provide the next question; what is your proudest accomplishment since coming to the Neath?
My proudest achievement? Many individuals acts stand out, but I think what I’m proud of is never compromising myself. Surrounded though I made be by avarice, apathy, betrayal, hatred and satanism, and though I may have walked upon the very edge of the abyss, I have never fallen to evil and the darkness of the soul. I have never sold souls to the d*mned inferno, never murdered for money, and never favored the powerful over the righteous. That is something I can be proud of.
What is your opinion on hell, and its hunger for our very souls?