Intro: Count Rouvaloff

[conspiringcount]

He's a youngish man, dressed well but not extravagantly, and at present looking around with no small measure of confusion. Suddenly he begins to smile, and then to laugh. "A house in the country! Wonderful."

Typist: Count Rouvaloff here appears in both Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and The Nihilists by Oscar Wilde, and since if you tilt your head and

Comments

[not_a_rose]

A man wearing a long open robe over his shirt and trousers, takes in the spectacle of the laughing young man and laughs himself, not so cheerfully. "Where're you from?"

[conspiringcount]

"Russia. Moscow, specifically." A pause. "Besides the obvious, what is this place?"

[not_a_rose]

"It's nowhere really. Most people get stuck here."

[conspiringcount]

"Is there no way out?"

[not_a_rose]

"If you have magic, sometimes." Evan Rosier smirks.

[conspiringcount]

"Which I suppose means I'm stuck. Ah, well." He shrugs. "Better than being in Russia, just now."

[not_a_rose]

"Most things are better than being in Russia anytime."

[conspiringcount]

He shrugs. "I would be very fond of Russia, if not for the political climate -- although that has been improving, lately."

[not_a_rose]

"You're from there though. Give me England any day."

[conspiringcount]

"I spent some time in England, when I was younger. I still have dear friends there. I suppose it's pleasant enough -- less to worry over than at home."

[not_a_rose]

"It's a civilized nation."

[conspiringcount]

"It pretends to be, at least. Few nations truly are."

[not_a_rose]

"That's damned cynical of you."

[conspiringcount]

He shrugs. "If I must be called a cynic for seeing the world as it is, I suppose I shall simply have to endure it, as it is much preferable to blinding myself."

[not_a_rose]

"Then please tell me how my nation is uncivilised?"

[conspiringcount]

"Rampant hypocrisy, for one." He toys with an unlit cigarette. "Constant praise of virtues the speakers do not, in fact, possess, and condemnation of all the vices they do. This is hardly exclusive to England, of course -- it is a feature of most human society. But it is present there, unmistakably."