Who: Tadgh, Balthier When: Current Where: At Balthier's bungalow What: Balthier has tea and discusses making a ring for Tadgh. Rating/Warnings: Nothing too bad. Status: Complete
Balthier's house has a budgie, being chirpy and cheerful on the porch, and a cat sleeping in the sun of a window. There's a few autumn leaves on the bulletin board (they took a hike with Courfeyrac) and it's a cool enough morning that Balthier's kind of glad to have tea made. There's also a lemon pound cake.
Tadgh’s heading through after leaving Enjolras with the other apprentices doing...he’s actually not sure what they’re doing, but it involved an obstacle course and picking the pockets of dummies rigged with bells and a lot of other things, so he left it at that and headed out. Personally, he’s glad that Enjolras is out of his weird funk. It’s part of why he wants to get things like this arranged.
He’s brought along a few things, since he was coming around. Some of Arno’s tarts, a few books that someone around here’s bound to be into, and a tupperware of something Ezio was experimenting with the other night and made too much of, even for their group. Ezio’s curious if it’ll work for Sunday dinner so he’s soliciting the opinions of the people likely to get invites.
He laughs a little as the bird chirps to greet him.
Balthier waves. "Hello. She's pleasant enough, but she will nibble fingertips if given half the chance."
“Hey there.” Tadgh crosses the rest of the way to meet him. “Sounds about right, really, birds assuming you’re a threat or food. Speaking of, I come bearing a few gifts. Ezio wanted to know what you make of this mushroom and beef thing he’s been trying out, Arno sent around some tarts and there’s books that have made their way through the headquarters.”
"Mushroom and beef sounds lovely. Does it have noodles or starch in it? I could heat up some wheat berries we cooked up for a salad." Balthier's waving him over. "It's cool for out here, but you guys were up in - Ireland, right? How was it? I heard Enjolras was a little stressed."
“In Dublin and not Belfast, this time.” Tadgh says, nodding. “And noodles are in a bag here, to go with them. Someone was playing with the bread machine’s pasta function.” He shakes his head, laughing. “I think Ms Moore’s the reason those finally came out. The trip was good. It did what I hoped it could, went beautifully. Enjolras has had…a pretty long week but he needed to meet other people like himself, see where they walked, where they were executed, realize what they had to do before the end. I don’t think, much as he says he accepted his death, that he accepted all of what it meant.”
"He struck me as being a bit - uh - the dying for the cause was more real than people, even in a utopia, living with it. But well - cultural stuff. Shall we heat this up and sit and chat? I could see you'd prefer to think about things other than Assassin affairs a bit. I can tell you about rings and my life?" Balthier's cheerful enough as he's putting things together.
“Right.” Tadgh nods. “Which I can sympathize with, to an extent. You always get those types, in your rebellions. It’s about as bog standard to have one or two about as the act itself. But when it comes to living with them, or them living with the world itself…” He frowns.
“But, no, he cared about his people clearly, and the people in the more abstract way. It just...takes a lot for someone to become his people. He cares so much and wants to do it well so badly, but the way he knows to go about it...I’m going to go ahead and blame the fact he’s French for it. But he’s trying and...he had to give it up, his cause, the idea that he was still responsible for fighting for it...there’s more to being a martyr than death. There’s laying down the burdens of leadership too, there’s laying down a cause, or letting someone else...TRUSTING someone else with it. And the fact all those he trusted died with him when he hadn’t intended it...it’s been an awful lot to process when he didn’t know he was meant to. And the trusting bits...are never simple.”
“ But he’s seen that it’s all right now, read the words, walked in the steps of those who took it up, and understood they’d have to lay it down. I’ll tell you honest, if we recover Sherr and the Abstergo folks have really got an animus...I wouldn’t object if he wanted to go through it, Enjolras, connected to my people. I think with moderation, it’d be class, to let him see beyond the words how it played out. It’s caught him on just standing in the footprints of our revolutionaries. It’d help him keep on making his peace, I’d say. And please.” he agrees, nodding. “It’s been a bit. I’ve wondered how she’s cuttin’.”
"Is that supposed to be a dancing metaphor?" Balthier sets up some bowls with that beef and mushroom dish and heats up the noodles to go with them. "This smells lovely. Reminds me a bit of - what is it - strongandoff?" And he should try to answer the question. "And - overall, things have been good? I suspect Courfeyrac's going to break a set piece, because he's - he's Courfeyrac, and that he might have some stress, but seriously -"
How to put it? "He's old enough to make choices, and we've told him we'll be there if we need us and I've talked to the guy with the play to check in if he needs us. It's good that he gets a chance to make choices and explore in the safest way I can let him?"
“Good question.” Tadgh considers. “I never really THOUGHT about where it comes from so much. I’ll have to look that up. And you know, that IS close to this now you mention.”
He laughs at that bit there.
“That COULD well be something to consider. He’s so...enthusiastic all the time from what Enjolras has said.” Personally, Tadgh thinks, as Enjolras mentioned over drinks one night, that it must be a little exhausting to be the person there with Courfeyrac for the day after day. “There IS a barricade to clamber over. It’s the sort of show they say ruins your knees if you’re not careful. But aye, keeping them safe at that age but letting them get on with things sounds decent. That’s about what my mam always said to do.”
"Sounds rough. But I heard a lot of the acrobatic stage stuff can be a thing." Balthier's sliding the warmed up food and the teapot over. "Let's - have a - craic?" He hesitates. "Did I say that right?"
“You did.” Tadgh beams, “Top rate, actually. And ah thanks,.” he’s gratefully accepting tea, and adding a little milk before sipping. He appears to be a TIF for what that’s worth.
"Miss Moore, for the record, asked me a bit about buying a house? Since Basch and I were looking to get a place once we were married. Somewhere on a beach, because it's just - I don't know. The sea is lovely, and the warmth is lovely, even if the weather will be a problem sometime, it's - still I think worth it." Balthier shrugs a little. "I think she was talking about getting a place to have somewhere you guys could safely visit and a cover if she's trying to poach employees out of Abstergo and into better work. And she was talking with some guy about being a guy to guard the door?"
Balthier definitely takes his tea black when he's not applying the milk and sugar trick to make it fortifying. Or spices, but that's definitely one where you boil the tea leaves in the milk and water for him. Would that be milk second or first since it's not yet tea?
“That does sound like it’d suit.” Tadgh muses. “I know Jacob’s said he’ll never regret Ty Ydfran. It’s a place to go when he or Emmett want to clear their heads, so that makes sense. And a good getaway for couples, I should think. And well, depends on the wheres I’d say, for how much of a problem you’re considering. And interesting, that. It’d be nice to poach the people that we COULD. I’d bet most don’t really want to be there. I ah...they’ve got ways of enticing you. I nearly applied as an animus subject back at home. One of the early ones. Father Mark talked me out of THAT when it was clear who was in charge of it, and Kate slapped me until my ears rang.” he smiles. “But point being, they attract fools who aren’t always able to know what’s happening on every level.”
"I think her plan is basically that - well - if you get ethical people who are trapped, you'd find out where the unethical stuff is." Balthier's making a happy noise at the stew. "This is lovely. I get the feeling she did that before? I mean - something with grabbing some assassin kids from some radical joint that was rough with them, and the general - offering people options idea. Fighting shady businesses in her hometown. Which - has she talked about it with you? It sounds very - Germany or Communist stuff or stuff like that."
“We’ve not really had much interaction actually.” Tadgh says. “Enjolras and I’ve been in and out a LOT lately. It’s good to have someone at my back in the field but it does make social things a bit more difficult to arrange. And that sounds fair rough, to be sure. Communist...it was a bit of a shock to find out that the wall was down, you ken? That Erhm...Belarus and Ukraine and all the rest became their own countries instead of all being under the great Russia Umbrella. I’m glad they got that together.”
"It's all kind of - vague to me still. It'd be like somewhere escaping from Archadian control, which I know - happened in some of my lives, but not before stuff started getting serious." Balthier's sipping his tea as he's thinking about it. "What else has been going on. Renfaire season was kind of quiet. I did a bunch of beading and work when Aedan wanted just some quiet, so I'm ahead of the rush orders. It meant that for some reason, one of the things I didn't do as much of - that's been selling, but I can work around that."
"I want to make something for Evie too, for the child or children, but - I need to find out what's an acceptable thing. Maybe a baby feeding spoon." After all, silver would not work. Balthier's working through the food quickly. It's lovely, and someone cooked for him. He's always loved that.
“Oh that sounds nice with the beading. And good question on what wolf babies would like. Shay’d likely be the one to ask. He seems to have looked into this a good bit more and Evie’s more of a...she knows what she’s doing but seems to ask the questions along the way. I do hope that works out. I’ve never seen Arno so …” Tadgh considers. “Well, he wanted this even before the wedding, you ken, a family that, you know, belonged to him in more ways than the lot of us do. I think he was a bit surprised Evie actually said yes about the whole…” He pauses, “Well the Rent A Womb thing.” That seems like a reasonable way to phrase it. “A spoon’s probably a good idea. Fairly traditional.”
"You're looking for a ring?" Balthier's got a slice of cake now.
“Ah, speaking of traditional.” Tadgh grins, drawing a ring off his left ring finger and passing it over. It’s battered gold, and has the crown and hands of most claddagh designs, but the heart’s been replaced by a celtic version of the Assassin sigil.
“One of the traditions of the Belfast Brotherhood. Once you’re an apprentice, you wear it, well, much the same way you’d wear the usual sort if you weren’t engaged. Right hand, wide side of the sigil facing out. Once you’re fully invested as a member in your own right…” he slips it back on his left hand, with the A shape facing toward himself.
“I’d been meaning to do it with Enjolras sooner, but things got away from me a little and Kate...I didn’t manage to get mine straight away either. Still, after the last week, it seems like a good idea to start thinking about. “
Balthier's leaning to look. "Do you think he's going to have his own preferences for jewelry? Or do you just want to show him what would be traditional first?"
“I was thinking along the lines of this being the tradition for my side of the creed actually.” Tadgh muses. “It’s just one of those things. Ezio’s branded, Bayek sacrificed his finger for his blade and was the first so people did THAT for a time in some places, Desmond’s...I’m pretty sure the eagle tattoo might be his thing, but checking about materials isn’t a bad idea. If he went for silicone...could that look close to gold?”
"It'd look kind of like this." Balthier's digging out his sample of it. It's matte and a little sparkly, closer to a gold dust on icing. "But it's easy to recast if anything goes wrong. Here's - this is a sample plain ring I did in the silvery metallic for Shay." Balthier's sliding it over. "Idea is that if it's caught, the ring breaks, not your skin sort of thing."
“The gold bits would work as well.” Tadgh nods slowly. “Bit of a traditional thing that gold’s involved. The legend with the claddagh is that the jeweler stole bits of it from his master’s forge. When we went to this ourselves, we kept that going. It’s a nice link to it.”
Balthier nods. "I could make him a normal metal one as well? He could wear it on a necklace in a pinch for really hard fighting."
“That might be a good idea.” Tadgh nods. He wonders if starting with the silicone might work, then swapping over later but for now he’s still sort of in the considering things stage. “Really hard fighting DOES have me a little bit concerned about his earrings but he wore them at home, to the barricades and seemed to be fine.”
"I suspect he liked them as a thing to fiddle with." Balthier leans to fish out some - clearly sketches of rings in a book. "Mind if I sketch the one you have?"
“Ah well.” Tadgh eyedarts. “Identification thing as all that goes, I think. The man that he admires most, historically, wore the same sort of hoops. And he’s got his hair styled similarly. He’s all...youth and severity and really cold, pure beauty. It’s a lot to try to live up to. I’m glad I helped him find somebody new, with a life outside of revolution. Who was one of us at that.”
And he’s passing the ring back over.
Balthier's leaning to sketch it. "And I hope he'll be happier in the end. He seemed pretty frustrated with - a lot of things before."