[Re-Intro] A bit high up there, for a kitchen rat....

[not_snake_bite]

He was just trying to find some air - the kitchens were too hot, Swelter was even more disgusting than usual, and he felt like... he was so very above them all.

The rooftops were his playground - his space of liberty - he skipped from one to the other, until he found himself as high as he could be, atop Gormenghast. Watching over the earldom was

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[silvereyedphage]

Somewhere along the corridor, Steerpike might hear the rustle of a heavy silk garment and spy a tall man in white, approaching from around a corner in the corridor. The newcomer comes close to quite literally running into him, but catches himself, stopping in mid-stride like a cat pausing with one paw in the air while stalking a mouse. In that instant, he turns his piercing gaze on Steerpike, eying the younger man quizzically, even with a hint of suspicious curiosity which he quickly veils behind a note of embarrassment.

"How embarrassing, I didn't see you there," he says, glancing away and adjusting his eyeglasses.

Someone suggested having Steerpike cross paths with this guy, and I couldn't resist letting them "be creepy together". Query: was "the bricks" deliberate or a Freudian slip? If it was deliberate, I have to agree: I had the omnibus paperback edition from the library and nearly dislocated the phalanges in the back of my hand trying to hold onto it while reading it. o.o

[not_snake_bite]

-- "Oh, I'm sorry, sir," the youth replies, and he does look terrified a moment before he realizes this is not -- well, not someone he knows. "I wasn't looking."

Brick indeed - it was 100% deliberate. I'm currently drowning in academia - so obviously I wouldn't have time to go back to ye books. (Also, OUCH. I hope you're fine. And omg all the fandoms we have in common, I am reeling more!) But yay for miniseries? ^^

[silvereyedphage]

"Nor was I," he replies. Not just a polite lie, as he'd been glancing back over his shoulder, distracted by something and had turned his blind side to the youth. He steps aside politely. "Were you headed somewhere?" Part of his mind is trying to place the youngster as some caretaker or other, but he knows that isn't likely, given the nature of the Mansion.

Yep, the hand is fine, though it sometimes tends to remind me somewhat pointedly about That Book if I try picking up a doorstop fantasy novel that's about the same dimensions, as if to say, "Hey, careful about them doorstops..."

[not_snake_bite]

He tries to be as assured as he can - but it's not particularly effective, because of the questioning.

"I was going to my rooms," he lies, he doesn't have any rooms. "I seem to have lost my way, however."

[silvereyedphage]

"Would you mind some help finding them?" he offers. "I was on my way upstairs myself." He suspects the youngster is covering something, but he's maintaining an air of politeness as he seeks to find out what's behind this one's mask of assurance.

[not_snake_bite]

"I would be very grateful," he replies, a touch obsequiously, but still with much confidence. "If that is not too much trouble, my lord."

[silvereyedphage]

"Not a trouble in the least," he says, with a small smirk. He likes that sense of confidence about the youngster: here's someone who knows what he is, and it's rather attractive, though the youth isn't quite his type. "But you needn't call me lord: I'm a commoner, albeit a physician and somewhat a man of means." There's still a note of barely-veiled pride in his own tone.

[not_snake_bite]

Well, that certainly gets Steerpike's attention. "Then I am your servant, my lord, if you will have me," he says, bowing. "Steerpike, at your service."

[silvereyedphage]

"Hm... I'm not in the habit of taking on a manservant, unless I've had some good character references," he says, pondering that and stringing him along just a bit. The idea is tempting, and there's a part of him that would consider taking the youth as a protege, if he showed any signs of potential.

[not_snake_bite]

"I'm afraid the Earl of Groan is currently quite occupied," Steerpike replies. "But you may be assured that I am the most faithful apprentice to be found."

[silvereyedphage]

"The Earl of Groan..." he murmurs, thoughtfully. "Hm. Could you describe your position while you were in his employ and the duties involved?"

[not_snake_bite]

Commence the lying, then. "I was the assistant-secretary to the master of rituals," he says. "And sometimes to the good doctor Prunesqualler."

[silvereyedphage]

"Hm... somehow I suspect you're only telling part of the truth but not enough," he says, starting to pace slowly around the young man. "I told you that I am a physician, and you're telling me what you'd like me to hear, since you're trying to get into my good graces. That's all well and good, but only if there is an element of the truth there. Just enough to give your statement credibility."

[not_snake_bite]

He manages to make it a charming, of somewhat ridiculous smile.

"I am also quite gifted with roasts, my lord." And he gives Muraki a rather... charming, extravagant bow.

[silvereyedphage]

"Roasts in the sense of joints of meat? I'm afraid I'm a borderline vegetarian," he says, still circling Steerpike and getting a bit closer, like a shark closing in on a marooned sailor's raft. If he has any sense for that kind of thing, Steerpike might sense something odd about this man, like a field of some kind, brushing up against him with an oddly caressing warmth.

[not_snake_bite]

The circling makes him uncomfortable - he's reminded of Swelter's predatory ways--- and those are not good childhood memories creeping up.

"Then I suppose I would be very useless to you," which suddenly is quite acceptable a possibility.