TIMESKIP.

[vrykolakas]

THE BRUCOLAC COURT Unseelie. TITLE Baron of Srathmarbh, Black Omen. OCCUPATION Baron, drugs manufacturer, political thinker gods help him, Umibōzu captain. ABLE TO FAST-TRAVEL Yes; puca. RESIDENCE IN 2,701 Srathmarbh. RESIDENCE IN 2,702 Srathmarbh. MAJOR EVENTS PUBLICATION OF THE REDDENED HILL Being a Personal Account of the Battle of An Carn Ban... [ ✖ ] ADOPTION DISCUSSION "There is no one I would want to do it more." [ ✖ ] COMPLETION OF THE SRATHMARBH SPIRE Description [ ✖ ] PUBLICATION OF THE GOVERNOR A brief meditation on what and what not to do while holding public office. [ ✖ ] BIRTH OF SHAMASH Description [ ✖ ] BIRTH OF ISHTAR Description [ ✖ ] RESCUE OF CHILDREN Description [ ✖ ]

PLANS By the time the timeskip ends, the Brucolac will be in a more stable position, his spire complete and the surrounding lands a buzzing centre of construction and commerce. He will have two children in the care of Alyosha Hazan. SUMMARY OF KNOWN DETAILS Beebins; daring rescue of beebins; becoming reluctantly published; stuff stuff stuff; seeing a scifi film and being the biggest nerd; building a wee town & preparing for ports & shipyards; maybe hunting cloudwhales; tsk'ing unhappily at the cult of the fox TIMELINE OF EVENTS SPRING IN 2,701 (Mar, Apr, May) MARCH - Publication of the Brucolac's The Reddened Hill: The Unseelie Triumph of An Càrn Bàn. Anonymous, though rumour suggests it was one of the Barons. MARCH - A long talk with Alyosha about adoption. APRIL 5TH - The Srathmarbh Spire is completed and the name 'Srathmarbh' finally begins to catch on. Construction workers are encouraged to stay and continue building on the town proper. Whispers abound of future, grander plans (the Brucolac himself ensures these whispers circulate). Various grants and start-up loans are offered to would-be business-owners. APRIL - Hunting cloudwhales for their precious floaty bones. MAY - Publication of The Governor. Anonymous/under penname. MAY - A run-down rural farmhouse west of Mair is chosen for the location at which to base the Brucolac & Dasha's growing drugs business. MAY - Aileas an Seabhac requests that the Brucolac act as her diplomat to help smoothe over tensions between the vampires and the elves. MAY - Those fucking swans. The Brucolac will scoop up a few and be seen to pour what wealth is gained from them straight back into Srathmarbh. SUMMER IN 2,701 (Jun, Jul, Aug) JUNE - Two vampire entrepreneurs take advantage of the Brucolac's offered start-up loans and begin to create a printing press in Srathmarbh. JUNE - The Brucolac participates in the Treun summer tourney, in the Melee category! Yseult comes to watch; the rumours which have long abounded about the Brucolac's kept woman in Mair become noisier. The event ends terribly for them when, during the daytime, Yseult is attacked by copycats of the fox cult for her association with shardbearers. JULY - Perhaps it's the rich heat of the summer sun which the slakemoths respond to? Or the blood in the air. They wrap themselves up in cocoons and emerge terrible, but are manageable. Don't ask how. JULY - An attempt is made to feed one Mr Bones to the slakemoths. AUGUST - The Festival of Shadow. FALL IN 2,701 (Sept, Oct, Nov) EARLY SEPTEMBER - The Brucolac is affected by the scrambling of the translation enchantment; he speaks some stilted Drabbish, and a whole heap of languages from his world, which are all totally useless to him. Expect terrible handwriting and a lot of gestures. Also expect one great big universally-understandable I TOLD YOU SO. SEPTEMBER - The Srathmarbh press is complete and ready for business! Grants for teachers and educators, or literate people wishing to become teachers and educators, are refined and more widely publicised. SEPTEMBER 29TH - Birth of Shamash, son of Verla. OCTOBER 3RD - Birth of Ishtar, daughter of Yseult. OCTOBER 5TH? - By the grace of the Unseelie monarchs, the children are returned, delivered safely to the arms of Alyosha Hazan. OCTOBER 25TH - 30TH - Samhain! An excuse to be naked with loved ones. NOVEMBER - Some of the escaped criminals are former employees of Mr Bones, out for vengeance or perhaps out for gainful employment now that Mr Bones is no longer quite the force he was. The Brucolac puts out feelers to ascertain various situations and deal with them appropriately. WINTER IN 2,701/2,702 (Dec, Jan, Feb) DECEMBER - The Brucolac stays far away from the White Hart. No thanks. Srathmarbh will hold a fervent Yule celebration, which promises to become a tradition. JANUARY - Fuck, what do you mean the slakemoths bred? Oh fuck. FEBRUARY - Yseult causes controversy at the Ostara Festival by anonymously submitting a work named Blindeye, a great abstract mural of wild colours meant to be touched and stroked and stared at with unease. It is torched by a traditionalist. The Brucolac tries to use this to distract from possible re-emergence of elf/vampir tensions caused by the assassinations of elven artists. SPRING IN 2,702 (Mar, Apr) DATE - Description DATE - Description DATE - Description

( codes by whambam )

Comments

[vrykolakas]

"Here."

The Brucolac's footsteps behind Jason are hard to catch, but he at least offers the courtesy of not simply appearing beside him. The cold is shock enough. No need to startle people.

He has a mug of mulled cider in his hands, which he holds out to Jason. It's bitter, clove-stinking, rot-gut stuff, steaming hot and alcoholic enough to clean a wound. "Drink. Trust me. As for relenting? The Roc's a vengeful cunt by all accounts, but birds aren't known for their attention span."

[uneulogized]

The footsteps are hard to spot, but he's trained to listen to his surroundings from a young age. That's a skill he had before Bruce tried to beat down the rugged edges of it through six months of training to be Robin. It's actually The Brucolac's arrival that confirms he heard anything at all, though, because his state right now might actually lead him to hearing things.

Thankfully, he's not. So, good. There's that.

Jason gratefully takes the cider from his hands while processing those words, eagerly swallowing the spicy mixture down. It burns a little on his lips due to the acid, but he can't bring himself to care. It still does what it's meant to do.

"I don't know about that. Am I supposed to trust that birds act like birds here?"

[vrykolakas]

The Brucolac shrugs, sweeps his hair back. There's a faint crunch, and for a split second he looks appalled, before his face snaps back to neutrality. His hair has frozen. Excellent. Great. Fine.

"Yes. To some extent. Depending on your world. There is an internal logic here; you just have to...learn to think with it. You might consider that the birds here act more like birds than the birds anywhere else. They are...the mythological essence of birds."

"Which is bullshit, but at least it's a rule to make reference to."

[uneulogized]

The statement reminds him somewhat of Loki's statement about stories and the evolution of them. It reminds him of the cycle of Ragnarok, and how things are meant to be. In a very big way, being drawn back to that conflict-filled conversation with the wonder heroes and Loki is uncomfortable, and it shows. His footing shifts, and though Jason intends to play it off as shaking off the cold that's settling in to his joints, he won't do it successfully if asked. After all, he's suddenly favoring the drink too much.

"Mythological essence of birds, huh," he says. "Well, isn't that just great?" There's an edge to his voice that he can't quite lose. Damnit.

"Maybe they're simple-minded, what with their bird brains and all, but they might have something more to them. Some lessons to be learned. Like, for example." Here he pauses to motion toward the Brucolac's long hair, and he smirks, trying to act confident. He ... at least smirks. "You should learn to blow dry your hair before you go out in winter."

Oh, yes, he nailed it.

[vrykolakas]

Reaching back with both hands to try to work the ice out of his hair, the Brucolac gives a faint grunt of dissatisfaction. "And you should learn not to mouth off to those that pay you," he says, without any particular rancour. "Ah, Moon's tits." Giving up, he drops his hands and shrugs. Let his hair be frosted over; fine. Definitely not the worst thing that's ever happened to it.

"Your bullshit conclusion aside," and here he flashes a fang in a lopsided grin, "you're right, I'm sure. Something to be learned. But hell if I'm not more interested in just defrosting my damn..." It's not a city. It's really not a city. "Settlement."

[uneulogized]

"Aw, and here I thought we were all encouraged to be ourselves. Did I get the wrong idea?" He doesn't seem to take the whole thing seriously. Either way, he takes a good look around. "But hey, even if we are, we're banding together. Ariadne's got a system to things. You could probably ... take some notes from her." Not that he seems to be doing half bad, but he's saying it ... partially to gauge his reaction to a statement like that.

"Then you could have a successful settlement, too," he adds in a somewhat sing-song voice.

[vrykolakas]

"I don't doubt it. The Lady Devourer's a good friend, good sort. You don't become a god for no reason...mostly. But our places are different. Her citizens make money off religion; mine make religion out of money. Or so I envisage it developing."

"Anyway, I have...a system," he adds, with what he knows is the utmost vagueness, almost petulantly arbitrary, smiling. "Churlish pup, what makes you think I don't? —Though of course, I couldn't tell it to you, for any number of reasons."

[uneulogized]

The language that The Brucolac utilizes is still unusual to Jason. It's not the first time he's encountered something like that in this world. Of course not. But it reminds him a little of his trip to England when he was Robin, and when he first heard a different range of accents never born on the mean streets of Gotham. Everyone's take on a similar (to his ear) accent had been strange. He knows this man isn't from this world, but from the way he speaks, he certainly suits it more than Jason does. That much is clear.

"Never said I didn't think you had one. I just implied that hers is obviously better. Exactly why I did that? Well, I could be a vague prick." He doesn't say "like you," but he certainly believes it's implied. "But honestly, I wanted to see how much camaraderie there is between the spires. I could ask directly, you see, but I still got the answer I was seeking."

Of course, he knows to be more direct next time.

[vrykolakas]

At that, the Brucolac manages to incorporate his whole body into rolling his eyes, throwing his head back (along with its slightly frosty mane) as if to address his mild exasperation to the very stars.

"Piss and ichor, doesn't it tire you out, thinking in circles?"

As if he doesn't do much the same, though to brag about it after...well. There's a flash of an overly-toothy smile on his face. "And if that doesn't fucking exhaust you, doesn't spelling it all out? Camaraderie between the spires varies, but I don't believe there's any outright animosity between barons, not currently."

[uneulogized]

"Come on, you asked. If talking is gonna destroy me, what am I gonna do when it comes to getting actual work done around here?" Talking big and never shutting up, even if it's talking in a circular way, is half the fun for Jason. He's always enjoyed staging just to see how things are, and he doesn't mind revealing his hand at the end.

He might criticize other people for it, but he tries to make good on his word. It's that factor that matters.

"Besides, it's my brand of fun. It keeps the juices flowing. Why make things simple in a situation that just isn't simple?" It sounds like a justification, but really, he's bullshitting along at this point.