Tragedy beckons... yet another Arthurian

[tricky_bowman]

He comes walking, limping, rather, covered in rags, tattered. His face is dark with soot and filth.   His walking stick hits the ground with a thud, for every step he takes. Yet there is, in the eye of the leper, something cunning and melancholy that belies his apparently morbid state. He walks slowly, though he has no need to.  His back is bent,

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[scoffandjest]

Dinadan, for once in his life, doesn't say anything at all. He just sort of... stares. Then again, he's never been terribly concerned with being polite.

[scoffandjest]

"They aren't tales worth telling."

[tricky_bowman]

"Then I'm afraid, good sir, that I must go on my way," Tristan replies evenly. "For I've many a pilgrimage to endure, to save my soul."

[scoffandjest]

"Right, right." He seems about to let him go, but he stops suddenly and grabs him by the shoulder, bending down to look him close in the face, as if to confirm his suspicions once and for all. "--you really don't know me? Because I know you and you know it."

[tricky_bowman]

Tristan grabs Dinadan by the shoulders right back, and grits his teeth. "If you know me as you so claim, then you would know that I do not trifle with friendships."

[scoffandjest]

Dinadan, perhaps unexpectedly, laughs. "I must seem like a proper ass, then, mustn't I. Good day Tristan-the-leper-- or are you still calling yourself Tantris when you pretend to be mad? Perhaps we'll meet again." He offers his most ridiculous caricature of a courtly bow and turns to go.

[tricky_bowman]

That's just enough to tip Tristan's confusion, and he straightens, and looks at Dinadan in utter bewilderment.

"Wait."

[scoffandjest]

He stops. "Yes?"

[tricky_bowman]

"What would you do, good sir, if indeed Tristan where here?"

[scoffandjest]

"Ask him where the hell he's been, for a start," he says, folding his arms. He hesitates a moment, then seems to soften slightly. This Tristan can't know how very, very unlike him that is. "Take him back to where I've been staying, probably. Make sure he hasn't been too busy pining for Isolde to remember to eat."

[tricky_bowman]

Tristan doesn't quite crumple. "How can you know me so, when I have never met you?" He's at a loss.

[scoffandjest]

"Damned if I know."

[tricky_bowman]

"Yet you swear to be my friend, and to have ---" he throws the cloak down. "Damn this accursed disguise, it smells of pork."

[scoffandjest]

Dinadan throws back his head and laughs.

[tricky_bowman]

Tristan blinks, but then laughs as well, for the first time in weeks and weeks.

[scoffandjest]

"Well, then. I suppose you're off to wring hearts with your leprous misery."