Want No Silver Threads [Open]

[Luquin Balin D'Aubigne]

[/i] with those words from the little boy Luquin got warm around his heart.
He watched the boys play with their wood swords. He couldn't help but smile.

But the boys left the yard. He was "alone" again. If just someone would come by. Someone who would want to talk a little or something. He had been bored all day. And he hadn't met many people since he came to the castle. But he wanted to change that.
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[John Payne]

When John awoke that morning, he had the familiar feeling of dread wash over him as he got up and started his day. Another day in the life of being no body. How depressing everything was lately. It really was rather cruel, but he had little choice of making things around better. He was no longer a child who hoped for a better life or a more interesting future full of hopes and impossible dreams. He knew for a fact he would die with the dept of his father - because of his father, his life was the only payback that could be given to return it, and John never had the choice of whether he wanted to do this or not. So everyday, for as long as he could remember and as long as he had lived, he had woken with the same dread. But that morning, for some reason. It was worse than usual.

Perhaps it was the dismal clouds surfacing in the backdrop, or the mysterious lack of people around, but it was a bit off around the castle today. Despite all of this awkward emotion hanging in the air, he got himself up and started his day, a day like all others. But for a moment he had been able to escape, and he gladly paused his work to take the chance. John slipped out to the courtyard, just to catch a few seconds alone without being yelled at in the ear, to breathe fresh air and get some smoke out of his lungs. Sadly when he arrived there was some already out there.

To say someone, really means someone of, well, status, if you could describe it as that. John reconized the face when he saw it, but no name came to mind. A knight, he was sure though, and he was not at all in the mood to be the precence of some other person who had authority over him. Today he was just not in the mood to be berated and have to scrape and fall at someones knees because they had better parentage. But John knew he was being bitter today, so he forced himself to have a look of no expression, and feel back into the shadows, walking along to another doorway to leave.

John hoped, as he walk toward the door, his head down in a practiced manner, he would not be called back. Even though he knew he would not be able to ignore it, he was about fed up with himself today, and didn't want to make a fool of himself trying to be all pathetically defiant, getting himself into a hole in the ground. But before he turned to go back inside, he accidentally made eye contact with the man. Oh just great.

[Luquin Balin D'Aubigne]

Luquin stared off into the direction in which the kids had gone, he kind of started to miss them already. They gave the yard a little more life; at least compared to the other boring people who walked around there.

A new face showed up in the yard. Not exactly new, Luquin had seen the man somewhere in the castle before. He didn't know his name or status, just his face.
Luquin sent a smile and a friendly nod towards him as their eyes met. The man seemed like he was about to go back to where he had appeared from. But Luquin rised from his sit on the bench and slowly started walking towards the man, while he kept eye contact with him.
Hopefully he wouldn't start to walk away from Luquin, but instead greet him and they could talk a little.

Luquin kept smiling as he got closer to the man. He seemed to be about same age as Luquin, but he was no soldier; that was for sure. The man did not look as strong as Luquin, but he seemed to be used to work. Smith? No, all the smiths that Luquin knew had huge muscles. He wouldn't find out if he did not talk to him.

There was only a few meters of distance between them when Luquin nodded slightly, again, and greeted him by saying: "Goodday sir."


(Out of character: Sorry that it's so short.
I was thinking if you could tell me how you "center" your text. I mean, if you look at my first post it's only the left side that's "centered" but both your right and left are nicely centered. )
=)

[John Payne]

(ooc: thats okay, im about to reply pretty short too so an eye for an eye i guess. I press the "blockquote" button when replying (the little arrow thing) or I put this code around the text in quick reply: [*blockquote][/blockquote]. Just take out the little star)

John cursed silently to himself as the man walked toward him. He obviously must have no idea who John was. Well fine, it's not like he could just turn and walk away. So he acknowledged the man and walked toward him too, giving him a little bow in return of his greeting.

"Hello to you sir," John said, stopping in front of the man. This was when John decided that he was not going to press any sort of conversation unless forced. This was just not the day for him to be anything but friendly - so he thought. He man himself seemly a fairly cheerful and pleasant person, but that wasn't exactly the point. In fact, the point was that John was particularly bitter and exhausted today, and he had to hide it, which made him annoyed. He currently wished he were about four years old so he would be able to show this emotion, but unless he wanted to risk being viewed as a childish baby, he wasn't going to do that!

Oh no, he was probably expected to say something else. He sighed into his sentence.... "Isn't it a fairly decent day outside?" Weather talk. That was safe and sure to be over soon. John hoped, that is.

(ooc: how sucky, my apologies)

[Luquin Balin D'Aubigne]

(Ooc: Thank you)

Ah yes, the weather. Allways a more or less good thing to talk about, sometimes it would end in a new conversation - other times it would just end out in awkward silence. Luquin hoped this one would start a new conversation. "It is, indeed," he answered.
Oh no; it had stopped already. The weather talk. Yeah, they could talk about yesteday, and how it might be the next day, but it would stop after that anyways.
"So, what brings you to the courtyard?" Luquin asked, with a light smile on his lips, to start a new subject.

Luquin had a feeling that the man somehow did not really want to talk. But he hoped he was wrong. Maybe the man was of lower status and just feared the higher titled. Well, some people of high status should be feared, but not Luquin - unless you had done something stupid to the royal family or harmed someone.
He was a nice person, at least he thought so himself. No one hadn't really told him that he was nice or anything. Compliments and nice words had allways been a rarety to him. Only his parents had praised him once in a while. He still wished that it was going to change some day.

So, why was the man there? Probably just of same reason as Luquin: boredom. Nothing better to do than just taking a little walk in the yard.

[/blockquote]

(Ooc: No problems, mines more sucky.)

[John Payne]

John felt a bit of the uneasiness between the both of them melt away as they both forced the conversation onward. He was thankful that this man was not - though he was obviously a higher rant and qutie older than he was - a pushy sort. Someone who would be needlessly cruel or unkind. This made John much more relieved, and someone he managed not to dread continueing the conversation as much as he had before. This made it so much more simpler, indeed.

John couldn't helped but to glance at his shoes, drop the eye contact, and get a shifty look to him, when he was asked this question. He was a tad ashamed of himself, but what could be done about it now? He looked back up to the man and said simply and honestly, "Feeding my lazy habits, taking a bit of a stroll from work if you understand." John smiled at the man, and held out his hand. "I'm John." And that's all he said.; He knew he wasn't supposed to be associating with this man, and knew it well. If anyone who knew of him saw he would be in confinement in mere minutes, but John couldn't help himself. He was a human being, and human beings were made to be around other people. He had to talk, had to meet knew people, it was in his blood just as it was in the worlds blood.

[Luquin Balin D'Aubigne]

Luquin slightly noticed how the man appeared to be slowly steadied, he seemed to have realised that Luquin didn't want to harm him in any way. He listened to the mans answer. "Of course I understand" Luquin responded, with a light smile fixed on his lips.
John - Luquin would remember him, he was the first person outside the royal family he had spoken to, since he came to the castle.
Luquin took his hand and shook it lightly. "I'm Luquin," he said. Hopefully John knew of french names and wouldn't lower his eyebrows at the name.

Luquin hoped that John would turn out to be a good contact to have in the lower ranks, but he hoped even more that he would turn out to be a good friend.
Building up friendships and contacts all over the castle was important for Luquin. If anything happened, he would quickly be able to find out who, when and where.
Getting many contacts would grant Luquin great advantages, especially when doing assassination jobs inside the castle.

[John Payne]

John smiled slightly at the interesting name while he shook Luquin's hand. What a fascinating name... he thought to himself, nodding at his new aquaintance. It was very quizzical to meet someone of higher ranking who didn't shun the lower class, because most of the time knights and royalty and so on didn't like to have servants and slaves around when they were doing something for their own benefit. It was shallow, but had always been very true. John was starting to become more comfortable with Luquin, though he knew he shouldn't. Like said before, he couldn't help himself.

John let go of Luquin's hand and breathed one deep breath. "So what do you do around here?" John asked casually but very much interested. He knew he was of higher class, but John was still rather curious to know what this man actually did for the royal family (because everyone did their job for the royal family). Though he dreaded being asked the same question in return, he found he didn't mind as much as he usually did, because somehow he knew it wouldn't matter very much at the moment.

[Luquin Balin D'Aubigne]

Luquin was happy that John didn't laugh at the name: Luquin. Most people did - but they would regret it short after.
John asked what he was doing. "I'm ranked as a knight." Luquin said. He tried to make it sound as it didn't really matter - but he knew it might. John was appearently of lower rank, but Luquin didn't care.
"What do you have of duties?" Luquin asked with a smile in return.

He sat down at a pile of wood and started to think of, what else he could say than just being a knight. He needed a better cover when people asked him what his job was. Only when the word that he was a knight would start to spread in the castle, he wouldn't need to tell everyone.

(OOC: I'm sorry it's very bad, but I felt like I had to reply with something - due to my inactivity)

[John Payne]

When hearing Luquin was apparently a knight, John nodded and smiled knowingly. He had been sure that this man had been of some ranking, and though he could tell Luquin tried to cover it up, it was very important. "Ahh..." John started, when asked of his job. "I do whatever I'm told to do Luquin. I'm a slave. Belonged to the king since I was born as a matter of fact." He smiled in a somewhat sheepish manner, and Luquin sat down. John did not sit, however, he was far too anxious and energized to do so.

[Luquin Balin D'Aubigne]

Oh, so he was a slave. How sad, he seemed like a person actually having potential to be way higher in the ranks. "Oh..." Luquin was about to say he was sorry, but he didn't want to make John feel weak. Luquin was sure he wasn't.
"The King's a good man, though." Luquin said a smiled - he hoped John would agree, even though he was one of the Kings' slaves.

Luquin wondered what slaves were supposed to do. He had never actually seen their work before. He wouldn't ask, he didn't want to discuss rank.
People walking by, pointed at Luquin and grinned slightly at him, maybe because he was with John. Luquin gave passerby's a dead eye look, and they stopped grinning right away.

OOC: Sorry for the wait!

[John Payne]

John grinned at that, having never spoken to the King but four times in his life, directly that is. Luquin whole demeanor and actions made John want to laugh, how strange he acted, how understanding and.... odd. He could tell that ranking was not something Luquin was interested in discussing, and John completely agreed. "Forgive me, but I must be on my way. Works to be done." With this John stood. having realized how much time had passed. He nodded at Luquin politely, preparing to take leave. "Very pleasant meeting you, hope we encounter again somehow." This was a rare possibility, with all the people amidst all that had been going on, but it was wishful thinking.