Subject: A while in to the event, Farah came up to Jacques's table.
Author:
Posted on: 2018-06-16 21:55:04 UTC
She was carrying a rather fruity drink.
"Mind if I join you?" she asked.
Subject: A while in to the event, Farah came up to Jacques's table.
Author:
Posted on: 2018-06-16 21:55:04 UTC
She was carrying a rather fruity drink.
"Mind if I join you?" she asked.
Well, more the movieverse sort, but Elves were Elves, to some extent...
"Hi," she said cheerfully. She'd worn the same thing she'd worn on a short, easy mission earlier that day, which was to say her skirt was colorful, her shirt was black and had a potted cactus flashpatch on the shoulder, and her hair was in its usual very long braid. She'd redone the latter for neatness and added a ribbon into the braiding as her sole concession to being at an event. "Do you mind if I sit? I thought I'd start with someone I don't know, and while I do think I've seen you around a few times, I'm pretty sure we've never actually met."
"No, please, do sit!" he said, hurriedly getting up from his seat to pull the other chair out for her. "You look familiar too, but I couldn't say where from..." He shook his head and held out a hand. "Dax, DIC. May I say it's lovely to meet you, miss...?"
She shook his hand, smiling. "You've probably seen me around, too--I've been an agent for ages, and there's only so long you can be here before half of HQ's passed you in the hallways."
"Dawn McKenna? I've heard a lot about you from Jacques Bonnefoy, if you're her. Either way—" He returned to his seat, steepling his fingers and smiling. "I look forward to getting to know you better."
"Wait...Dax." She frowned, eyeing him. "If that isn't your only face, and believe me, I don't mean to suggest you have a lot of them at once, but if it isn't, then I've heard about you too." Including some things I wish I hadn't, especially now I'm probably sitting across from you.
Dax's smile widened and his features morphed into Jacques' likeness. "Tall, handsome, with a jawline that could cut steel..." He smiled at Dawn. "And yes—you'd be very correct that I've got a lot of faces. Comes with being a shapeshifter." He leaned back as he returned to his first, elven body. "I find potential partners sometimes like to make requests, if that's your thing."
Dax looked up at the ceiling, rubbing his chin. "Ah! Princess Eilonwy work for you?" she asked as she morphed. "Sorry, I haven't heard about that series since, oh, three years ago in Intelligence?" She brushed her hair over her shoulder, smiling.
"Aw, lovely," she said. "I always liked Eilonwy. You should read--reread?--the series, if you don't mind a recommendation. It's really good, and it holds up really well."
"I'll definitely keep that in mind," she said, shifting back. "These days, it's all the big stuff—Avengers, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings—I actually kind of miss my smaller fandoms. Not that I like seeing badfic for them," he added hurriedly. "Though that does remind me, where are you from? I come from Dungeons and Dragons. Tabletop RPG, if you haven't heard of it."
"I'm just from World One, though--Canada, if you have any idea where that is. My family's still living there--well, my biological family. I've definitely got a few people here who couldn't be anything but family by now."
Dax grinned. "I kid, I kid—I know my World One geography. Now, me, I was raised in an orc tribe in the northern wilds of Faerûn. Cross my heart, that's the truth."
"Are you sure that's not just an excuse?" she said. "Like, if someone asks 'were you raised by orcs', as an equivalent of 'were you raised in a barn'--and then you say that actually, you were, and you find that offensive? Or, like, they just go 'oh, you poor dear', and excuse whatever manners they thought were bad to begin with because they think you actually were raised by orcs?"
"I can belch and hunt with my bare hands as well as the rest of them," Dax said, holding up a sassy finger, "but I like to think my manners can be quite nice, when I want them to be." He leaned forward and conspiratorially whispered, "You haven't seen me eating with my hands, have you?"
"I haven't seen you eating at all. You can really hunt with your bare hands, though? Because if you can, that's pretty impressive."
"Alright, I might have embellished the truth a little bit," he confessed. "I know how to do that in theory, but in practice? Give me a longbow any day, please. I've got the strength score of a mealworm." He gave Dawn an easy smile. "Now, doing a backflip off a dragon and onto the skyship below? Been there, done that."
"You what? Off a dragon? On a skyship?"
Dax spread his hands. "What can I say? I was an adventurer. Crazy stunts like that happened every day for me."
"No wonder Jacques likes you. Well," she added, "I know it's not the only reason, but an adventurer? That's really cool."
"Fling or friends, it doesn't matter to me," he said. "So long as the food is good and the company better. And so far, you've been excellent company, Dawn." He smiled at her. "I wouldn't mind getting to know you better, no strings attached."
"Hi!" she said to them excitedly.
"What'cha want?"
"and the message said this was a place to get to know people, so here I am."
She looked around the room. "Uh, this is the speed dating event, right?"
Dagger gave a noncomittal shrug. "And to what great personage do I owe the pleasure?"
"Who are you?" she asked. "And is there some title or greeting gesture or something you use I should know about? I don't think I've met anyone from your species before."
"That's what everyone calls me anyways. Can't be bothered to change that."
He shrugged. "If there are cutural traditions of my people, I wouldn't know. Most Dragonborn don't go to college. Or get recruited to play tech support in an interdimensional conflict with the forces of darkness, where darkness is represented by some of the most eye-gouging writing I have ever read, and given the imbeciles that I have met over the years, believe me, that is saying something."
"but here I am, and here you are."
"I'm think I'm going to be in one of the action departments, but I'm still in training, which apparently involves reading books and watching movies a bunch."
"What'd you study in college, Dagger?"
"And thus, it is my eternal destiny to deal with problems caused by the kind of dolts who live in a magical dreamworld where the laws of physics don't apply. Like my partner." He grimaced. "Programmers, the lot of them..."
"I did run the radios back on the Ambition, though, so I know a little bit about engineering. Got pretty good at dealing with aliens, bureaucrats, and alien bureaucrats." Farah sighed. "It was good practice for here, turns out."
"And here I thought humanity was bad. The flowers are even worse... Still beats my home, though."
"Then again, maybe I just haven't met the sort of humans who'd be running station offices yet." she added. "But, uh, what happened back home, if you don't mind sharing?"
"That would be none of your business, Farah," he spat. "Believe me, I don't need your help digging up painful memories."
"Sorry." she said.
"Most people certainly don't. And 's nothing personal against you."
"Want to go grab some food?" she offered, hoping to change the subject. "I'm a bit hungry."
She was carrying a rather fruity drink.
"Mind if I join you?" she asked.
"Pull up a chair," he said, and offered his hand. "Jacques Bonnefoy, ESAS, and may I say, you look lovely?"
"And thanks." Farah continued, pulling out a chair to sit down in. "You look pretty good too."