"Morning, Strahan," Asar-Suti said, passing with coffee.
To him, it was. That's what you get for living with a faun who gets up very, very early to start breakfast before anybody else wakes up: your morning is other people's very late night.
He frowns, thinking of the strange couple and the white lion that seemed to defy everything Strahan knew about sentient animals by talking to all and sundry.
Strahan has not come across them recently, but that's only a matter of time, really. And likely they'll have words for each other.
"I saw him during his first transformation," he acknowledges. "I have not spoken to him since, but I do plan to, even if he is not lucid enough to converse."
Not as a friendly gesture but to ensure that Strength and Wheel don't get to Rabastan first.
"During his first transformation, even," Asar-Suti said, feeling pity for Rabastan, if only because he was Strahan's freind, and Strahan had too few as it were.
"Is he all right, or is he behaving all - broken, you know?"
"Do tell me, will you?" Asar-Suti said. "I am rubbish at dealing with broken people, so I shouldn't go bother him before he repairs himeself to some extent."
"To help him train shifting voluntarily, to start with," Asar-Suti said. "As we said. Then, I will see what he needs. As long as he doesn't touch me or mine, he shall have my support. But I maintain I may laugh at him when he's not looking - whatever those cards said!"
An act that can cause much havoc in the bar. Strahan's all for anything that causes havoc somewhere, because then he can come in and reshape his surroundings into that which serves him best.
He could make for a valuable servant, for as long as he can be put to such a task...
"And what do you mean by, 'touching me and mine'?" he asks casually. "Do you feel he is a threat to you?"
"He gets on well with Námo and his extended family," Asar-Suti said, "and also with you. I mean Gil, of course - they're from the same world, and from different sides. Also, fauns are prey - at least on some worlds, and Rabastan is a werewolf. If he ever tries to either eat or offend Gil, my support is cancelled!"
"And you're certain Rabastan Lestrange would turn cannibal?"
It almost comes out sounding like a joke. Almost.
"Is that why you intend to teach him how to change outside the curse's natural cycle, even though control is also on the itinerary?"
He sets the DVD player onto the table he'd found it lying on before Asar-Suti had arrived [it was on his lap when the Seker came across him and began the conversation] and steeples his fingers together, a calculated look on his face.
"Once the prey has been chosen, the dogs fan out, intending to run their prey into exhaustion," the narrator continues, oblivious to the interruption. "Ninety-percent of the dogs' hunts are carried out in this way and most of their hunts will end in a kill-"
"Is it your plan to give Rabastan Lestrange the ammunition he needs to attack your Gil thus giving you a justified reason to retaliate?"
"Cannibalism means eat-your-own-species," Asar-Suti said, "and once somebody is a wolf, a human, elf or faunis no longer near their species. But yes, a werewolf might eat people; it's its instinct to bite people beause in that tradition, that's how you get more werewolves - in others, they're born that way. On the Disc were my friend Eska came from, for once. Or that poor befuddled fellow we used to have in here who thought I was Jesus, at first. And no, I don't have any plan, except to help Rabastan get better control so I won't have to get the alarm from Gil one day, go help him, and fry Rabastan to a very small crisp, because a god of magic who also happens to be a volcano, in a fit of fury and panic both, tends to overkill. We saw that when Valgaard fell."
He sighed. "Can you just pause that?" he added, giving the DVD player an evil look.
Like Strahan really cares about how you get more werewolves this morning...
"He is a man in the form of a wolf; he is not a true wolf at all," Strahan points out. "Like a Cheysuli in lir-shape is not really the animal he becomes; rather is only an echo of that animal."
A brief hunt for the switches that operate the unit to shut the sound off.
"But why do you intend to help someone you intend to make fun of when he's not around?" He's thinking of those meddlesome card-creatures here. "If they tell him what we said he will not come to you at all, if for no reason than the offence he might feel towards us."
To him, it was. That's what you get for living with a faun who gets up very, very early to start breakfast before anybody else wakes up: your morning is other people's very late night.
Reply
"Is it? Or maybe it is. I have lost track of time, as is usual for me."
Naturally. Time means nothing to Ihlini.
Reply
Reply
Strahan has not come across them recently, but that's only a matter of time, really. And likely they'll have words for each other.
"I saw him during his first transformation," he acknowledges. "I have not spoken to him since, but I do plan to, even if he is not lucid enough to converse."
Not as a friendly gesture but to ensure that Strength and Wheel don't get to Rabastan first.
Reply
"Is he all right, or is he behaving all - broken, you know?"
Reply
He does his best not to smile. If Rabastan is broken it makes the wizard easier to remould into the form Strahan considers best.
"I will know if he is broken in mind or spirit when next I see him."
Reply
Reply
"And when he is repaired?" Strahan asks, meaning "when I have remade him to my specifications", "What will you do then?"
Reply
Reply
"And what sort of magic and support do you plan to give Rabastan Lestrange?"
The idea of Rabastan becoming a minion to god and sorcer flits through his mind for a brief second, passing by quickly.
Reply
Reply
He could make for a valuable servant, for as long as he can be put to such a task...
"And what do you mean by, 'touching me and mine'?" he asks casually. "Do you feel he is a threat to you?"
Or those who you consider close?
Reply
Reply
It almost comes out sounding like a joke. Almost.
"Is that why you intend to teach him how to change outside the curse's natural cycle, even though control is also on the itinerary?"
He sets the DVD player onto the table he'd found it lying on before Asar-Suti had arrived [it was on his lap when the Seker came across him and began the conversation] and steeples his fingers together, a calculated look on his face.
"Once the prey has been chosen, the dogs fan out, intending to run their prey into exhaustion," the narrator continues, oblivious to the interruption. "Ninety-percent of the dogs' hunts are carried out in this way and most of their hunts will end in a kill-"
"Is it your plan to give Rabastan Lestrange the ammunition he needs to attack your Gil thus giving you a justified reason to retaliate?"
Reply
He sighed. "Can you just pause that?" he added, giving the DVD player an evil look.
Reply
"He is a man in the form of a wolf; he is not a true wolf at all," Strahan points out. "Like a Cheysuli in lir-shape is not really the animal he becomes; rather is only an echo of that animal."
A brief hunt for the switches that operate the unit to shut the sound off.
"But why do you intend to help someone you intend to make fun of when he's not around?" He's thinking of those meddlesome card-creatures here. "If they tell him what we said he will not come to you at all, if for no reason than the offence he might feel towards us."
Reply
Leave a comment