milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Ramon's in the bar early, despite wishing he was still upstairs. But, things to do, and there are reasons why it's not a good idea to have weapons in his room right now. Something to do with the company.

Anyway, he's cleaning three pistols, a rifle and his sword. Bit tricky when one arm is virtually out of action but hey, he's got time and nothing else to do right now. Distractions would be welcome though.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It doesn't matter if she wants to. She is." It's also a matter of Melou being a bit overprotective himself.

"There's just the two of us. Do you get along with them?"

Ramon stares at him for a long moment, then shakes his head. 'I'd feel sorry for her if I was that type of guy. You must be a real pain in the ass to live with.'

He lights another smoke off the end of his last one and shakes his head.

'I don't see them.'

"Pretty much." He agrees with a smile. "Drive her and my brother up the walls."

Then he shrugs and watches the smoke. "That's like a pipe, I guess, without the pipe?"

'Nothing to be proud of, kid.'

He looks at the cigarette, then smirks and pulls the pack out. 'Kind of. Want to try one?'

"Probably not, they're both easy to rile up."

Melou eyes the pack and then takes one. "Sure."

Ramon suppresses a grin as he lights the boy's cigarette. One won't get him hooked but hey, it's a start.

'What's your brother like then? Nosy as you?'

"Nah. He's quiet. Likes to read." He puffs on the cigarette and promptly starts to cough.

He laughs and pulls easily on his own smoke.

'Never smoked before then? Not even pipes?'

Melou makes a face.

"No. Now I know it was a good idea not to."

Ramon smiles. 'You get used to it. It's not so bad - of course, if you want kicks, there's things with more point to them than smoking.'

He's just making an observation here, not implying anything else. Education in what the twenty first century has to offer, as it were.

"Yeah. Alcohol, herbs and things that make you hallucinate." It's possible he might be talking from personal experience.

'Sounds like you know what you're talking about,' Ramon observes casually. 'Where'd you learn about things like that?'

Beat.

'Your mother know what you get up to?'

He was right, he does like this kid.

"Mostly from my Aunt Morgause." Melou shrugs.

"Nah, she doesn't know. Our visions and stuff scare her enough. She doesn't need to know about this."

'And you tried these things out?'

Healthy teenage experimentation with drugs. Ramon loves it. He's curious though because visions haven't come up in conversation before.

'Visions?'

Melou nods.

"Mostly because of them, I tried it. I get dreams, my brother gets waking visions. Our Father had it. They don't make a lot of sense, but they're pretty bloody."

Even more curious. Ramon leans his uninjured arm on the table, resting his chin in his palm and regarding Melou closely.

'Like - premonitions? Or just random things that never happen.'

Like regular dreams.

"That's the word." He rests his chin on his knees again. "Our Father's came true and as far as I've got mine figured out, my future is either really bad for me, or I'm making it really bad for someone else. Melehan, too."

'You want to hope it's the latter. Or if it's the former, you should do what you can to change it. Doesn't it worry you?'

He certainly seems calm enough about it.

The boy shrugs again. "It's fate. Whatever I do, that's what I'm supposed to."

He's learned that from his mother.

'No such thing as fate, kid, only what you make for yourself. If you don't want to die a bloody death or inflict one on someone else, you don't have to.'

Ramon does not believe in being made to do anything against one's will. Or - well, he doesn't get forced to, preferring to be the forcer. And certainly not in such a thing as predestiny.

'You can always change things. You just have to want to and be prepared to do whatever you can to make it happen.'

"But who's to say that if I do that, if I change something, that's what my fate was to begin with?" He challenges.

'But you haven't changed it yet,' he points out. 'So it stands to reason that whatever you're dreaming about now is what'll happen from where you are now, right? And you said you were planning on taking your throne back - that would suggest there'll be fighting and therefore, blood.'

He shrugs a little.

'Go and be a goatherder or something, and you probably won't see much blood.'

He knows the boy won't. Doesn't blame him. He wouldn't.

He snorts at that.

"Pendragons are not shepherds. We're warriors."

'Warriors eh?' Ramon shakes his head a little. 'You and your sit around and dream of noble deaths or something? Your blood for your country and all that bullshit?'

"We don't sit around. Much." He mutters. "Only when we're having our lessons. My Father, my grandfather and his father before him were all great warriors. It's in our blood."