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[cozen]

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[cozen]

[ Bastien grins at that face, and then at his cards, which are better this time. And it’s harder than it looks, but it’s not that hard. ]

Perhaps we just attract bastards here, and the rest stay home.

[bouchonne]

I'd protest that I'd seen the same pattern in places such as Val Royeaux and Antiva, but I suppose that both of those places also attract bastards, no?

[cozen]

[ Bastien opens his mouth, sighs through it, shuts it, and then says, ]

I need you to learn to think better of yourself, By. So I can say things like they attracted you, when you open the door that way, and know that you will not take me too seriously.

[bouchonne]

[ There's a flicker of uncertainty in his face. Then - ]

Don't be dramatic, Bastien. You know I find jokes like that to be perfectly riotous.

[cozen]

Yes, but you're sensitive tonight.

[ He glances up, friendly mischief, and resumes playing. ]

What if you had been raised with power but a family that did not treat you like shit? Would that have just gone to your head?

[bouchonne]

[ He is decidedly less comfortable with this line of discussion, but determined not to seem so. ]

Oh, yes, I'd have been a dreadful thing, don't you think? Like one of those chevaliers, terrorizing the countryside but pretending righteousness.

[cozen]

Mm, no. I don't think so. Or at least it is very hard for me to imagine. But I suppose it is the precise opposite of protecting the countryside while pretending degeneracy.

[bouchonne]

Well, how about you? [ He draws a card, wrinkles his nose, and immediately discards it. ] What would Bastien of wealth-and-privilege have been like?

[cozen]

I don't know.

[ He draws and considers his options for longer than necessary, since he's also thinking about the question. ]

Maybe if I had a library and a ballroom and my own bed I would have been content. I could have stayed home and written bad poetry. And everyone would have to tell me was brilliant, because I was paying for their wine.

Or maybe I would have been the same beast with a wider reach and sharper claws.

[bouchonne]

[ An arched eyebrow. ]

Do you really think yourself a beast?

[cozen]

Oh, you know.

[ He makes his trade, then lays out his hand without ceremony, smile a little cheeky. ]

Not in a bad way. A fox is a beast.

[bouchonne]

[ By clucks his tongue as he loses. Badly. He gathers up the cards and takes a turn as dealer. ]

Rather few of your behaviors strike me as particularly foxlike. Unless you are referring to the fact that you're foxy.

[ A very lame line. Fortunately, deliberately so. ]

[cozen]

[ A better line might have panged. This one's perfect. He laughs—a delighted little titter—and smooths his mustache with his thumb and forefinger. ]

You lost. You have to tell me a secret.

[bouchonne]

Those weren't the rules.

[ The protest is surpassingly mild, and immediately followed by: ]

What genre of secret?

[cozen]

Small and harmless. Funny or odd. No broken oaths. Unless you would prefer big and personal if you win the next hand. Then you have to set the precedent now.

[bouchonne]

[ He shuffles the cards meditatively a moment. Then, apparently deciding: ]

Last month I picked up a book to read. Of the sort you're quite fond of. A Wind Across the Waking Sea. I finished it, even.

[cozen]

[ His face was already plenty bright, but it lights up further. ]

Did you really? Did you hate it?

[bouchonne]

I did not. [ An answer to the second question, not the first. ] The plot was a little contrived, but it was still quite gripping.

[cozen]

[ He doesn't ask if it was because of him, because he doesn't know what he would do with a yes. Or, no, he does know. He'd feed it to the hope he's trying to starve. So instead: ]

Can I borrow it?

[bouchonne]

Of course.

[ He draws a card. ]

You can have it to keep.

[cozen]

Ah, ouais, you would not want to be caught with something like that. People might talk.

[ He hasn't even looked at his cards yet, but he does now, and they're either good enough or bad enough that he laughs. ]

[bouchonne]

Just so. It would do my devil-may-care image no favors to be seen putting time and effort into something. If I kept it, I'd have to carve out the middle and hide a bottle of liquor in it.

[cozen]

Ha. If you ever need a book for that, I can find you one that deserves it.

[bouchonne]

What! I thought you loved all books.

[cozen]

Oh, no. Just the other day I gave up on one because it was— [ an emphatic gesture while trading cards ] —shockingly racist. Even for Orlais.