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[student_of_impossibility]

For all that Tavi is just as obviously military as ever, today he looks rather more... formal than he usually would. His dress uniform is still just a uniform, and he has steadfastly refused to go beyond that for formal occasions, other than to replace the usual cloak clasp with one quietly bearing the Princeps' insignia--not that this would mean anything to anyone outside Alera, but inside, it was enough of a change to suffice.

That said, he probably hasn't looked quite this put-together--and non-dusty--for quite a long time.

Being somewhat dressed up has not, however, precluded his standard casual sprawl in his favorite booth, where he can be found going through a series of letters during his meal, looking alternatively amused, embarrassed, or simply thoughtful.

If he's not careful, that pretty uniform of his will need cleaning.

Comments

[street_sparrow]

"Look at you, all fancy." Gavroche drops into his booth just as casually.

[student_of_impossibility]

"It's just my dress uniform. Had a meeting," he explains with a shrug. Tavi hasn't actually bothered to look up at where he's frowning slightly at the letter he's reading. "I might not even have needed to bother--Magnus insisted."

He'd only been meeting with one of the few High Lords actually favorably disposed towards the Crown, after all--and Cereus seems eminently reasonable and practical--but still, it was a good point.

[street_sparrow]

"Was it an interesting meeting?" He cranes slightly to try and read the letter upside down.

[student_of_impossibility]

"Not particularly." Another frown as he turns the page, and then a brief skim of the contents of that letter confirms that this particular one can wait until later.

As a result, Tavi just folds it up. "Unless you find naval logistics fascinating, I suppose."

[street_sparrow]

"Depends on the situation. But generally probably not."

[student_of_impossibility]

"Then no, not at all interesting." Tavi sighs ruefully. "It would have been more so if I'd gotten more people in the same room, but change takes small steps sometimes."

It's said philosophically--and is somewhat at odds with his casual disregard for such and tendency to shove big changes down people's throats at times.

[street_sparrow]

"It really does", Gavroche says wryly. "Lord Ratspeaker tried to knife one of the Raven's Court at one of my father's meetings last week. We told him not to bring weapons any more."

[student_of_impossibility]

Tavi blinks, rapidly--he's not sure there's such a thing as a meeting of Alerans, especially politicians, who aren't armed. That the High Lords are all walking natural disasters waiting to happen does not help.

"I take it he has a history, then?"

[street_sparrow]

"He thinks like a rat", Gavroche explains. "And rats fight. Even if you're two, three, ten times their size, they'll try to fight if they see a threat. Or think they do."

[aleranchala]

Kitai just drops from above, landing next to him. Where was she and how had she done that? Some questions are just better left unanswered.

"You have your heart in your face."

[student_of_impossibility]

Her turns of phrase are so interesting, sometimes--and occasionally a little more pointedly accurate than is comforting. Tavi supposes it's probably good for him, or something along those lines. "I'm probably not supposed to," he admits. It's a bad enough habit for a Cursor, let alone the Princeps.

(If he's surprised by her dropping out of nowhere, he isn't showing it. He probably isn't, though.)

[aleranchala]

"Not if you want to..." A pause as she frowns, obviously having a hard time thinking of the exact world. "...Lie, it is not. Or surprise.

What is this?" She touches the clasp. It's like he changes a bit every time she sees him, nowadays.

[student_of_impossibility]

"I'm fairly certain it's somewhere in my job description that I'm not supposed to give anything away," Tavi notes--because that much, at least, is true no matter which hat he happens to be wearing, at least since he first signed on with Sextus.

Which is why he just gives her a totally serious look. "A cloak clasp." His answers are universally helpful, aren't they.

(Sometimes lying is done best by simply not answering. Isana taught him that.)

[aleranchala]

She gets an actually angry look, for a split second. Nothing angers her more quickly than Alerans assuming the Marat are too stupid to know basic things like those. But Tavi never did that, Tavi actually tried to learn from them.

Which means he's doing something else right now. And her anger shifts to comprehension and a little bit of curiosity.

"You're doing that, now. You're 'not giving anything away' to me."

[student_of_impossibility]

Indeed, Tavi never treated them as stupid (though, granted, being near to being killed gave him lots of incentive to behave decently in that first meeting).

And one thing is certain: Kitai has never been stupid. So he just inclines his head faintly. "Yes." He won't insult her by trying to deny it, for any number of reasons. Kitai never did tell him just when she realized who his father was--but that she did without his telling her...

But if she knows too much, the younger Tavi she's around might pick something up, and with her opinions of lying, he will hardly ask her to lie to, of all people, him.

[aleranchala]

She looks at his eyes, same eyes she would in a reflective surface. If Tavi isn't telling her something is because he either plans on using it later, or because he thinks it would harm her to know.

"I trust you by not asking questions. But you look troubled, Aleran."

[student_of_impossibility]

After a moment Tavi smiles faintly. "Thank you." It means a lot, really, that she trusts him implicitly. And at least she's gotten the message that some of this he does not want to discuss.

"A little, I suppose," he admits. "Though nothing I have time to dwell on." Or the right to; he is not going to presume to make judgments on his family members' emotions.

[a1enzo]

Enzo looks him over. "Dress uniform?"

Their uniforms may be utterly different styles, but nevertheless, one can tell.

[student_of_impossibility]

Tavi looks up and nods, smiling wryly. "I had a meeting," he explains.

He's not surprised Enzo would recognize it; honestly, the whole point of a dress uniform is to be visibly a uniform, and dressier.

[a1enzo]

Funny how that works.

"Anything important?"

[student_of_impossibility]

"Important, yes. Interesting?" He sighs. "If only."

Supplies for an extended voyage overseas are, in fact, critical. Just boring--especially when Tavi spent the entire meeting trying to pretend this wasn't going to result in him being seasick, again.

[a1enzo]

"Oh, that kind of important." Wheeee.

[student_of_impossibility]

"Yes." Tavi shrugs after a moment with a faint smile. "It wasn't a particularly boring meeting, just necessary. And it could have been worse."

And High Lord Cereus was fairly warm and welcoming, if visibly disconcerted at times (which Tavi guesses has to do with being unused to the entire concept of the furyless Calderon boy as Gaius's legitimate-born heir).

[a1enzo]

"So what's up lately?"

[student_of_impossibility]

"Not too much, at least by comparison," Tavi admits. "Mostly just logistics, for the moment. What about you? Anything interesting happening?"