april catch-all!

[feintofhart]

Who: Claude & Various
Where: Around Aldrip!
What: Claude and his encounters around town.
Warnings: None anticipated! If you'd like to hop in on a log, however, please feel free to PM/DM me or hit me up on plurk (here!), and I'd be happy to whip up a starter for you, or you can just wildcard me in here! Claude will be going about his business exploring the new Aldrip, fumbling around with new technology, running the apothecary, training, riding his wyvern, etc., etc., so if any of those appeal, feel free to jump on in. :)

Comments

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph feels further validated by Claude agreeing she shouldn't pull her conversational punches, and she waves a careless hand to indicate agreement with the joke about literal earth punches. ]

Of course you fly, [ she returns dryly. She just cannot stop making friends with people who fly. ] Who's Zafeera? [ She's expecting this to be some kind of mythical animal companion already, based on her experience with Aang.

Then she wrinkles her nose at the question, but they are being honest and she likes him enough not to couch her response. She doesn't mind revealing to Claude that she can directly empathize with some of what he's saying. ]

Not exactly. I'm not a princess or anything. [ Her tone implies God forbid. ] But the Beifongs are the wealthiest and best-connected merchant family in the Earth Kingdom, and I'm my parents' only child. [ Toph lets out a gusty sigh, slumping a little and fiddling with the straw in her iced tea. Glumly: ] It's fine that I'm an earthbender, but it's not fine that I'm a kick-ass renowned master who goes cavorting around the world.

So... I kind of get what you're saying.

[feintofhart]

My wyvern. I raised her since she was just an egg. They're not common around here, but back where I'm from, they're everywhere -- not quite so common as horses, considering how difficult they are to handle, but just about. I'll introduce you two one day.

[ People around here seem to think Zafeera is exceptional. And she is, for a wyvern; with her ivory scales and impeccable breeding, she's truly a steed worthy of a prince. But none of that means anything to anyone here. Far from having entire batallions filled with wyvern warriors, they see her mere existence as extraordinary. It's puzzling.

Toph being the daughter of a noble, though... ]

I have to admit, Toph, I didn't expect that of you. And I can typically sniff out a noble as soon as I meet one. [ He flaps one hand. ] Noble, merchant -- once you have enough success, the difference is negligible. [ His lip curls into a half-smile. ] But I figure that that's precisely the sort of impression you'd like to give off.

[ Not unremarkable, no. Quite the contrary, She presents herself as remarkable, but not through wealth, not through the nature of her birth, but by virtue of her own achievements. It's a hope many children of nobility have, but few ever bring to fruition, corralled by their parents' wishes for them and the narrowness of a society that doesn't foster success in any realm but the one you were born to. ]

It sounds... stifling. I imagine that they would have far preferred for you to stay home and show off your social graces -- or to get married to some other merchant's son?

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph has no idea what a wyvern is and doesn't feel compelled to ask, but she does look subtly agreeable and open as she responds, ] I'd like that. I've done a lot of flying, actually. [ Not that she necessarily enjoys it, but she loves Appa as much as the next Gaang member, and she trusts him absolutely. In that kind of context she doesn't mind flying even if she doesn't love it. ]

It is, so I'll take that as a compliment, [ she drawls, meaning his inability to sniff her out as a noble. Toph doesn't disagree that inherited titles aren't needed to count as a noble, she just wants to be clear that she's not inheriting anything more than money and a successful trading business.

To demonstrate that it is a deliberate, considered affect she puts across as he suspects, Toph straightens out of her slump and tucks her scraggly, loose hair properly back behind her ears and into her headband. Her voice turns measured and respectful, posture absolutely correct with her hands clasped calmly on the table surface. ] I couldn't be expected to run the family business myself, of course, [ she demures. ] Not in my condition. Father would select a husband for me.

[ The whole act breaks abruptly. ] So -- you know, I ran away, [ she shrugs, careless, like it was the only logical course of action and meant nothing to her. ]

What about you? You're obviously somebody if you're in a position to manipulate land owners.

[feintofhart]

Duke von Riegan, leader of the Leicester Alliance at your service, Lady Toph, [ Claude says, something a little sardonic in the twist of his lips. Even now, the title of Duke feels wrong, like he slipped into someone else's shoes only to find them a little too big for him. Duke is technically a lesser ranking than his true one to be sure, but he had never before had to seriously tackle the idea of leading an entire country, and after spending a lifetime as Prince Khalid, becoming Duke von Riegan in a world where he still felt he was learning its customs and culture had been... trying. ]

In another world, I may have well been one of those awful men your father had picked out for you. [ His tone slips, turned cheeky, still a little charmed by the little performance that Toph gave, prim and proper and ladylike and everything that Claude's had to put on himself in the past few years. (Maybe not the ladylike part, though certainly ladylike compared to Almyra's customs). They are, Claude realizes, more alike than they are dissimilar in many ways.

Claude had run too. ]

The Leicester Alliance is what my country is called, by the way. True to its name, it's ruled by a confederacy, though I'm the one at its head. [ He taps his fingers on the table in an uneasy rhythm, feeling comfortable enough to admit: ] Honestly, it's not a role I saw myself adopting. But my grandfather passed almost as soon as war broke out, and leaving Leicester's fate to the other nobles... well, I didn't believe that would be in anyone's best interest. So Duke von Riegan it was.

[ Some may think Claude wished to shirk his duties and run rampant, a joyful little lordling enjoying the blessings of his class. The truth is quite the opposite: Claude doesn't want to be Duke. He wants to be King. ]