a wild teal deer appears!

[ironwood]

CR TEAL DEER MEME





How to play? Reply to this post with the characters you play, people will then reply to you asking 'What does X think of my character Y?' then zoom around and ping other people in the same manner to generate some CR chatter! This is a good way to see where your current CR stands and what your characters secretly think of each other.

Comments

[epigrammatical]

Lord Henry Wotton | epigrammatical
Una Persson | una_persson

[trifurcate]

/leaps at

[epigrammatical]

...aka Bryn What Are You Doing Oh Honey No.

Although this is not so much because (as I've rambled before) Henry is actively trying to mess with her. It's not like he's deliberately trying to convince her to make all the terrible life choices. What he sees in her is a beautifully open mind and generous personality, and he can't resist the urge to feed her ideas and ... I hate to say "mess with her head" because that implies malice, but it's the closest phrase I can think of. He acts and speaks in ways to elicit reactions from her, and in so doing, is learning how her personality is shaped. And seeing where he can alter that shape.

At the same time she keeps him off balance, because she's so different from the usual sorts of women of his rank. And he loves it. He might not enjoy it so much if he weren't so assured of his own influence on her, alas, but in the meantime, he enjoys what is in his mind her unconventionality, her openness to experience, and he even enjoys being teased by her. It's very novel.

And he absolutely relishes the fact that she trusts him. This can only end well, am I right?

[trifurcate]

Sob, these two.

I do love that she's able to keep him off balance from time to time, and lord knows she loves it too. It's fun for her, but in an entirely affectionate way. In a way it's how she flirts (sobbing) and...yes.

I can't even. I am out of words.

[jirk]

Una on Bruce (... and maybe Jim if we can get a ways into this thread we're doing?) and Henry on Aisha?

[una_persson]

Had the stars' alignment been slightly different when Bruce and Una first met, she might not have liked him all that much, being that she's kind of an anarchist and he seems like a classic American plutocrat. Not really a match made in heaven, as it were. But he's charming enough and amusing enough that he managed to get past her usual armour, and she's seen enough of him now to wonder exactly what is going on under the charm. She hasn't got a clue, of course, how deep the waters run, but she's been around a long time and known a lot of people who aren't what they seem (and been one herself, sometimes and someplaces), and so there's this hunch she has about him—but can't explain it or put it into words; it's an instinct, and at this point, not much more than that. But that instinct is part of what keeps her intrigued by him.

tl;dr on Jim to come as thread progresses!

If Henry weren't so careful, he would have his unreconstructed Victorian ass thoroughly on display with Aisha. He has a lot of words for her in his head and none of them are nice and some of them are downright bigoted. :| Because, well, she's a brown person and a woman, and Henry is a product of his time and a dick. All that being said, unfortunate as it is—he does have a smidge of grudging ... I'm not sure if I can call it respect; let's call it admiration, for her, because she does have an extremely respectable right hook on her. Because of that he has no desire to ever get within arm's reach of her again, if he can help it. Which of course means it has to happen.

[virginprice]

Henry on Alcuin and Una on Lyall?

[epigrammatical]

Alcuin is probably the closest thing Henry has to a confidant on the turtle. This is a somewhat saddening thought, considering how guarded he is even with Alcuin ... but it's true. It's sort of curious how that happened; Henry realised fairly early on that Alcuin's intellect is not so vulnerable as it might seem at first glance, and so I think he considers that angle of approach to have been closed off. Nevertheless he likes Alcuin tremendously, finds him exceptionally beautiful (and, um, skilled), and enjoys his company, and is probably at least a stumble and a good hard push away from actually ... not being 100% artificial around him. We won't go so far as to say "opening up", because that'sone of those cold-day-in-hell things, probably, but it's interesting to me that Henry doesn't seem to feel as acutely that he has a persona to keep up around Alcuin. Everyone else has a mask specifically tailored to them, but the mask for Alcuin is more of a domino than a full-face thing.

Una likes Lyall and needs to see more of him! She genuinely enjoys the company and conversation of people with a long view in history and humanity, and Lyall strikes her as a reasonably well-balanced, phlegmatic sort of guy with a smart head on his shoulders. She also likes his dry wit very much. She's also curious about this werewolf thing and kind of wants a look at how it works for herself, but feels like it would be rude to ask.

[bindsthedead]

Henry and Una's thoughts on Sabriel?

[epigrammatical]

Henry's faith in Sabriel is like that he has in his doctor—which is saying something, considering how young she is, not to mention female. But she's helped him significantly and literally saved his life and that genuinely counts for a lot—and he's also aware that she, like Dorian, has seen him in a truly vulnerable state, and he has a healthy respect for what that means. I think he might have condescended to her at some point had he not known what she was capable of, but she's proved her worth to him. Not that he isn't bemused by her—he still thinks she's dreadfully young and it seems very strange to her that a woman does what she does—but he'll take it, since he is alive, after all.

Una likes Sabriel—finds her interesting and smart, and admires her willingness to teach others. She's curious about Sabriel too—where she comes from, what her life was like before. Definitely wants to get to know her better—and sees her as a very valuable member of Team Malicant. She's counting on Sabriel to be a good ally in the coming fight.

[shootingshields]

Una on Peggy?

[una_persson]

Una likes tough, competent women, and as such, she really likes Peggy. They seem to be cut from a very similar bolt of cloth (resourceful, English, classy), and indeed have similar backgrounds—admittedly Una's been knocking around the Multiverse for much, much longer, but she's had a lot of life-during-wartime experience, just as Peggy has. She's definitely someone Una wants to cultivate as a friend and ally, and at some point they really need to go out for a drink or something.

[depicted]

It feels impolite and demanding to ask more than Harry re: Dorian.

[epigrammatical]

Much has changed, though, since the last time we did this thing!

Mainly: THAT BOOK. It's the elephant in the room every time they're together now, and Henry can only deal with the elephant by ignoring it. Not that it doesn't intrude every now and then. Of course, the fact that Henry has learned about all the things he didn't know—James Vane, Basil—through a book has also had the somewhat detrimental effect of helping him keep it at arm's length, because aestheticization of experience! It's the best coping mechanism!

The problem is that he knows: if he spends much time dwelling on Basil, he will become angry with Dorian, or worse—but the intensity of his continued fondness for Dorian is such that he doesn't want to push him away again, and so he keeps his anger and grief over Basil at a distance; he hasn't allowed it to really sink in. Possibly this constitutes a time-bomb. But it's notable that as much as Dorian can't seem to stay away from Harry, Harry can't really stay away from Dorian either.

He wants to know his future now, but he can't ask Dorian. He'll probably go to the Emperor at some point. At which point there will be a fresh can of worms to open re: his periods of exile and eventual demise.

The other large mammal in the room is Henry's failure, as I noted on plurk, to really grasp what it means for Dorian to be older than he is now. Because his appearance is so unchanged, and because of the way Dorian often shifts into a more youthful mode when he's hanging out with Henry, Henry in turn simply defaults to the way they've always interacted. Because it's easy. He's intelligent enough that he will eventually find his way toward comprehension, I think—it's just ... I'm not sure, going to require a few more shocks to the system (ha ha) or something.

[aloadeddie]

So Henry, what do you think of your partner in crime?

[epigrammatical]

Arthur contravenes all of Harry's prejudices against Americans. Well done, Arthur. He's classy, discreet, and smart, all qualities that he appreciates and admires; as a result Harry actually genuinely enjoys doing business with him, which is remarkable in and of itself. And, well, Arthur is quite nice to look at, in that boyish way that Harry finds particularly appealing, so that's an added bonus. Also, the fact that there's more than a hint of danger about him (in light of his comfort with under-the-table dealings) is intriguing. He won't pry, but he enjoys the possibility of mystery.

[aloadeddie]

haha! Arthur hates being thought of as "boyish" but THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENT ALL THE SAME

[chiot]

Hellloooooooo~

[epigrammatical]

So it's interesting that you mentioned Henry as reminding Gavroche of home in a way, because it's kind of similar for Henry. Because although much of his movements are through the high end of society, even a gentleman has reasons sometimes to pay a boy on the street to run an errand without asking questions. His business with Gavroche is thus pleasantly familiar, and Henry likes his spirit. Henry is also the kind of man who doesn't object to children as long as he can put them back where they came from at the end of his interactions with them, so it's easy for him to be friendly.

[inseine]

/waves at Henry

[epigrammatical]

Henry likes you, Javert. Whether you want him to or not.

The sad fact of the matter is that Henry needs people he can troll. The drawing-rooms of aristocratic London are gratifyingly full of subjects, but he doesn't have nearly as many in Keeliai. So Javert fills a necessary role in his life. (Alas.) He recognises that Javert is no dummy, so he knows he can't send him up over a lack of intelligence, so he's happy to troll Javert by continuing to recommend hideously inappropriate literature to him. Forever. The only reason he didn't try to start out Javert on Á rebours is that it would have probably cut the game off before it even started, and that's no fun.

Trolling aside, though, he finds Javert interesting in his absolute rigidity and orderliness—there aren't many people Henry knows like that, so he also enjoys talking to Javert for the sheer novelty of the man.

[iron_ego]

Hello, lovely. <3

Una and Lord Henry's thoughts on Tony?

Lord Henry's thoughts on his deliverypire, Mavis?

[epigrammatical]

So you know those Tammany Hall era cartoons of big round American plutocrats chomping on cigars, wearing tacky waistcoats, and swaggering in vulgar fashion all over the place? That ... is Henry's image of Tony in his mind. Never mind that it bears no particular resemblance to the actual man; it's what pops into his head whenever he hears the name "Tony Stark". Although since they managed to have a friendly conversation at last, that image is summoned with a lot more good humour than it originally was. Henry finds all Americans somewhat vulgar (including his own sister-in-law), but Tony, for all his rudeness, is perhaps not so bad once one gets to know him.

Una needs to drag her time-machine over to Tony for a look and for some geeking-out. I admit I have wondered if it would be feasible/possible for her to get it up and running, even if it just ends up being for one brief and potentially unpleasant trip. He amuses her, and she'd be glad to talk shop with him—she actually somewhat regrets not having more information to share. There's a certain kind of roguish guy she finds appealing rather than annoying, and Tony is in that category. Possibly just as well that he's taken. Also, the image of them talking shop whilst Tony keeps a missile on the hapless kedan she was dealing with is kind of priceless.

Mavis perplexes Henry—mostly because of the way she talks. He has absolutely no frame of reference and so is actually just kind of baffled by her. Nevertheless she is charming and enthusiastic, and also useful with being able to move quickly after dark (occasionally very necessary), so he likes her quite well for that.