Lux is noticeable long before she is visible. Her Wyrd makes the very air pulse with power. Light pools around her feet in an expression of the Wyrd on her personal reality. It moves in waves and gentle currents, then drifts up like mist around her forming patterns in the air about her. Today, fractals upon fractals into infinity are displayed in ever increasing detail within the wispy strands of light that float about her.
She is sitting in a high back chair with a clipboard and several pieces of paper. Notes have already been taken on many of them, under the others. A row of tiny clay faces - trifles - sits neatly on a table beside her. A sign sits next to those that says: Mien Study - in neat meticulous handwriting.
The old Changeling who enters seems mildly perturbed by the degree of Wyrd on display, but does not show any real hesitation. Instead, Yesteryear just takes a seat. The cane is then set to lean against the table, and the lidless eyes stare at Lux with undisguished interest and curiousity. There's a question in lieu of introduction, "Do you ever fear that your power may be leading you to things that you would once have regretted?"
Lux looks up from her notes, tilting her head to the side. She studies the newcomer closely, watching with cold, proud green eyes. Ruby lips purse into a thin line. "No," she says with a forceful tone to her haughty voice. "And you are rather bold to be asking this of someone you just met." A critical eye journeys over Yesteryear with slightly dismissive tendencies.
"You show no Mantle to proclaim a court, your Changeling-ness is weak. Your power in this situation is negligible in comparison to my own. You do not carry the tell tale signs of a Blackbird Bishop, nor many other Entitlements that would put you at least into an oathbound state to quest after such information." Her lips purse even tighter for a moment, then she places the pen down slowly upon the clipboard. "So, besides the fact that it would be rude to do so and perhaps problematic if you are a member of the same Freehold as I, please explain to me how your rudeness had given you any benefit to this conversation?"
Yesteryear snorts. "It is my duty to identify those with fortune and power they do not deserve, as well as those who lack the fortune and power they have earned. To restore the balance, I care not whether you care for my work. I needed to know." The lidless eyes keep staring, though the lips on that face have tightened some. "And you seem to be blind, too, for my membership of the Ashen Court is plain to see. Now are you done being haughty and self-important, because I came here to do you a favour."
Lux turns her gaze back upon the other changeling, then shakes her head. "A favor?" she asks with a raised brow. "I do not think that anything you have to offer will be worth my time. If you mean my study," she gestures to the rows of clayface trifles beside her sign "Then you are not doing it as a favor. You are being compensated fairly for your time in answering a few questions. If you do not wish to answer them, then there is nothing lost to me. If you wish to participate in the study - and again, be compensated for your time - then state your name; either your actual name, or what you would be known as in the study, or simply that you do not wish to leave a name, and we will begin."
"I am known as Yesteryear. You can write that down if you wish so." The Ogre then gets out a pipe and some tobacco and starts to fill the pipe, "Do you have a light?"
Lux shakes her head negative to the question, then looks over the changeling in front of her again, taking notes and speaking outloud as she does. "Frail. Elder, may be actual physical ageing rather than Mien related. No eyelids, heterochromia - Grey, Brown. Sunken sockets. Vines, brown and gold leaves. Mantle, perhaps, if so ignore. Androgynous gender."
As she finishes, she looks back up at the other changeling. Her eyes have lost their pride and gone to a scholary interest now, a singular focus that does not care for what people think of it. "Please feel free to ignore any questions you do not wish to answer. What would you classify your Kiths as, if you know? Do you know or understand how you came to be this way from your time in Arcadia? Do you know the name of your Keeper or any of their Titles, and do you know or believe they had any hand in your current form? Are you a memeber of any Entitlement that would affect your mien, and can you describe the changes it has made to me?" The questions are said in a measured tone, though little time is left for answers until she puts her pen to paper and waits.
With the request for a light going unsatisfied, Yesteryear goes digging through the coat to find a matchbook and strike up one of the matches to light the pipe, then begins to smoke. After exhaling a single ring of smoke into the air, "I'm a Witchtooth, Ogre. And yes, the vines are Mantle." Yesteryear begins to go past the list, "I remember little from my time in Arcadia, the only thing that sticks out is the relentless and infuriating buzzing. I believe my keeper's name to be the Noemata, but I don't recall where I learned this." The answers come with little hesitation, perhaps Yesteryear has heard these questions before. "My left hands severity is a consequence of my entitlement, and while less obvious it's also why my right hand is relatively smooth. As I indicated before, I am an Adjudicator of the Wheel."
Making a curious noise as she writes, Lux pauses at the mention of the entitlement. "Ah," she says with a slightly understanding tone, then making a few more notes. "I see. I have yet to meet a Judge before today. Your comments on Balance are put into a different light." She does not sound as if she quite accepts them yet, however, just a different sort of understanding. "So your eyes and your hands are a result of your entitlement. The leave are your Autumn, if weak, mantle. Please tell me what has changed from your mortal form before you were taken that led is different now. Were you elderly in appearance before you were Taken or is that a result of your time and your Kith? Or is it a result of simply time after returning? Do you have other qualities related to your Mien that are not easily visible from a cursory inspection?"
"I wasn't quite this tall." To explain the comment, Yesteryear rises fully rather than the bent over posture that is their normal. As such, it's clear the ogre is well over six feet tall, for as long as it lasts before that seat is retaken. "I was not elderly before I was taken, and I was after; but I'm not certain that is a consequence of any conscious choice, the world was very different when I was young and mortal." There's a brief pause, "I believe my skin isn't quite this leather-like in the mask, but I don't spend much time strengthening it, so I can't be sure."
Lux nods a few more times, and writes a few more notes. Then she puts the pen down, reaching out to take one of the clayface trifles. "Thank you, Yesteryear, for your time. This is your payment, should you wish it, for your services rendered. It is a clayface triffle. If you have any questions for me, you may ask them as part of your payment as well, now that you have participated in my study. I do not garuantee that I will answer all of them, but you may certainly ask." Whatever arrogance and haughtiness from before seems to have been replaced by general scholarly pursuit and joy at academia.
Yesteryear pockets the trifle, and blows another ring of smoke. "Well let's start with a simple one. What's the greatest regret of yours that you're willing to share?" The Ogre seems dead-serious in the asking. "What's the greatest harm you've ever done to someone who trusted you, limited to those occurences you're willing to discuss?"
Lux gives a slight, coy smile. "I have no regrets Yesteryear. Not a single thing that I have done has been a mistake or not worth pursuing. As for your other question, that is not something that can be answered without violating far to many oaths." She puts a fresh blank page on the clipboard and then pins the pen in the top, setting both to the side. She folds her hands together quietly, watching with green eyes that have gone cold, quiet. The misty light that dances around her has lost its endless fractals, becoming a blank, bright, slate.
Yesteryear smiles. "I see. I see. Well then, let's go on a different tack. Imagine a close friend betrays you, what do you think are among the more likely reasons they would do such a thing?" Yesteryear is smoking a pipe and occassionally blowing a ring of smoke towards the ceiling, they're seated near a table with tiny clay faces, and Lux has a clipboard.
The sign at the table says 'Mien Study' but Lux looks like she has started to pack up for the day. Another smile comes across her ruby lips as those pale whisps of lightsmoke drift around her head. Her wyrd pools as light on the floor around her, giving off a palatable aura to any who approach her. "Someone else betrays me? Terminal stupidity I would think," she says with a shake of her head. "Either that or the fact that I am a unapologetic bitch, who is ruthless in her goals and will do anything in order to achieve them. That tends to make enemies, and it would not surprise me in the least if someone betrayed me. You speak of close friends, but those are not things I have. Such things are potential weak points in either my defense or potentially flawed tools for my offense." She stands and stretches slightly, then reaches under the chair to pull a bag and begin to put the clayface triffles away. "I need to be about other business, but as I clean up feel free to ask me a few more questions."
Tallahassee slips in from the back, exploring the building as one does a maze; from the exit to the entrance. It's cooled down outside but she still wears a shirt with no arms, shoulders bared and dappled with seawater dribbling from from her hair. Wide straps of her backpack also get some of this water, but the heat of reality evaporates it much quicker than her skin. She's certainly not expecting to run into anyone, or else doesn't mind being caught with puffed out lips and making rhythmic pth-pht-ptht sounds. Whups, she stops this quite immediately seeing there *are* people in here. Yeah, that wasn't intended. Maybe this bright and potentially disarming smile will distract these people.
"Pragmatic to the point of rudeness then, I can appreciate that." So sayeth the changeling who opened up with a rather rude question, and has been asking more questions of that ilk. "Do you believe you deserve everything that you possess? If so, would anyone disagree with you? What reason would they give, and why would they be wrong?" Yesteryear turns to stare at Tallahassee when the small androgyne enters. "Did you get lost?"
Lux glances at Tallahasee, then dismisses her after a moment. She finishes putting her things away, and puts the pack over one shoulder. "There is nothing in this world that is deserving of -me- except power. And what other people think of me is of no consequence. Their opinions matter naught as long as they do as agreed in contract and pledge - and those have power binding them beyond someones extremely likely to be broken word. Power to strike those who break. So your questions are moot." She tips her head one final time, and the light that pools around her legs changes slightly, the misty light taking on soft curls within its forms. "Thank you for your time in my study." then she is striding for the door, on her way to wherever.
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