| Log Title |
| Summary: | Adelaide catches up with her father on a number of subjects. |
| Date: | 1865-10-30 |
| Related: | Related Logs (If there aren't any, use None. Don't this entry leave blank. If there is a log, use full URLs, like http://eternalcrusade.wikidot.com/logtitle) |
| NPCs: | {$npc} |
| Players: |
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| Oscar's office |
| Lyoness |
| Oct 30, 1865 |
Oscar D'Augustino's desk is a mess of papers and alchemical experiments in various stages of progress. Glass jars with murky contents, beakers and dishes covered by smoked domes, some of them labled, others not. He sits behind it and absentmindedly spins a charcoal stylus wrapped in cloth between his long fingers, reading through a report and leaning back in his chair with his feet up on a corner of the desk. He is a brilliant man, but of the variety that seems to maintain an unnavigable mess around himself at all times which nonetheless will be defended as 'organized just how he wants it'. His office has something of a mysterious, sulferous smell from all the chemicals and compounds on the shelves and on his desk, and there are green plants before the large glass window growing from pots. All of them are ludicrously healthy and many of them are incredibly dangerous when reduced in one way or another, or powdered. The prize of his collection is a small, toothy pitcher plant which grows on the window-sill in a brightly coloured little pot; not dangerous to humans at all but a subject of some fascination to him. While shelves containing jars and flasks and so on take up nearly all the wall space, atop them are specimens of rare butterflies and other insects from around the world pinned and preserved under glass with labels done in his spidery hand.
Adelaide has been on the road for a while but she's taken the time to clean herself out before presenting herself to her father. She knocks on the door lightly before she lets herself into the cluttered room. She smiles faintly, taking it all in, the familiar piles of books and compounds, all those mundane seeming items with secrets within them just waiting to be unlocked. "Father?"
Oscar looks up from the report and the pencil ceases just for an instant in its spin between his fingers. "Hrm? Oh, hello Adelaide. Come in!" He gestures to the chair across the desk and looks Adelaide over. "Did you just arrive?"
Adelaide draws further into the room, towards the chair he's offered. "A few hours ago. I took a moment to enjoy the bathes as I'm not sure how long I will be staying." She settles down neatly, her hands smoothing over the dark green crape of her dress. "I wanted to speak to you about a few matters I didn't trust to letters. Mostly concerning the al'Slythar family and how you would like me to proceed."
Oscar cants his head to one side. "Do elaborate," he says, setting down the report.
Adelaide looks over him for a long moment before she nods. "I believe it would be an advantageous time for you to approach Duke James about a union between myself and one of his sons. While I wouldn't suggest you relay you know such things when you do, Lady Alina has been increasingly unstable of late, she's nearly been killed twice, been wounded another time and been kidnapped once since I rejoined their household most recently. Either I might, in the position of sister, be able to protect her into her inheritance, or steer my husband into it should she continue with this recklessness." She decides is the simplest way to put it. "My preference is for Corvin, the bastard I know but I believe he has more of the… raw ingredients I need to work with. What are your thoughts on the prospect?"
Tapping his lips with a finger, Oscar D'Augustino listens to his daughter as she speaks, watching her face thoughtfully and occasionally switching the pencil in his fidgeting way. It would be hard to call him an absentminded man; indeed he focuses quite keenly once something has his attention, as his daughter now does, but his hands are rarely still for any length of time.
"I've known of your interest in Corvin for some time," he says, thoughtfully. "It strikes me as quite prudent, to make yourself close to our liege family. If something -should- happen to James' heir, it would certainly be to our benefit that one of his sons be fond of you." He taps the charcoal again, and then laces his fingers together and leans his elbows on the desk, setting his chair forward with a little thunk of the two foremost legs touching the floor again. "But unless something truly spectacular occurs, Adelaide, I have no intention of letting you marry a bastard, nor spending my favors in pushing for his legitimacy." He unfurls a hand and looks to the side, gesturing toward the window over his shoulder. "Continue as you have been my dear; I will consider what you said. God gave you a fantastic brain, and a sense for the world around you that makes me very proud. I trust you will make no mention of these thoughts to either of them?"
Adelaide's eyes narrow just a fraction. "It will be too late if you wait until something happens to Alina." She glances around to see if there is any wine about, but then reminds herself drinking anything at all here is likely unwise. "Don't you want me to be a dutchess?" d'Augustino ambition wars with familial duty quietly inside the little body on the chair. Slowly she recomposes and turns her attention back to her father. "Imagine what I would be able to do for us having a position of authority over the other syndicate families."
Oscar smiles, and its a oddly gentle smile for a man Adelaide knows has reached into the open chest of a dying man to capture bile just as fresh as possible into one of his jars without much ado. "Dear Adelaide…" He rises, and steps with a clack of boot heels over to her chair, putting gentle hands on her shoulders and bending down to meet her gaze levelly, expression earnest. "I said that I would consider all of it." Straightening, he turns his back and picks up one of the specimen jars on his desk. "If you are staying for dinner, I will see you then. If there's nothing else, I have more work to do while the humidity lasts."
Adelaide nods if a bit stiffly, "Thank you father," she accepts. "I have been asked to go north by Lord Marcus to help with the troops fighting there. I have also been asked to come to Four Corners by Corvin while he tends to what I can only imagine to be syndicate business. Do you have a preference in my destination?" She asks, keeping her voice devoid of any preferences as she too rises to her feet.
Oscar half turns. "Actually my dear, I would appreciate it if you went to Alasce to look after Lady Alina." He nods. "It would be best if you avoided the front."
Oscar D'Augustino turns the jar slowly in his long fingers. "War is an ugly thing, and this one… promises to be no different."
Adelaide's brow lifts in slight suprise but she offers a bit of a nod. "Of course. And father I have told Corvin my wishes, he will do what ever I ask him to do in this matter. And Marcus… he's in love with me after a fashion, he'll respect my wishes as well. And of course what ever your wishes are, I will present them as my own." She moves over to stretch up onto her toes to give her father a dutiful kiss on the cheek.
"I am not afraid of ugly things father," she is after all the girl who challenged herself to cut into a man cleanly and quickly enough to be able to watch his organs as they shut down. "But Alina can use the company I have no doubt."
Oscar nods, bending just a little to receive the kiss. Without further comment one way or the other then, he bids his daughter good-afternoon, and returns to his experiments.