CONTACT [EL NYSA]

[priorly]

[Greetings, Prophet. The Great Work Begins.]
(leave a message after the tone)

Comments

[priorly]

And you seem so polite. Quel cheval noir.

[badgerlock]

Well, no one likes a bastard, it seems.

[priorly]

You've always been perfectly pleasant to me.

[badgerlock]

Why shouldn't I be?

[priorly]

[A beat.]

Oh. You mean your parents weren't married. I've never understood why that has anything to do with you. My father was fucking the nanny, what does that make me?

[badgerlock]

Trueborn, I would assume.

[There's a pause, and a sigh.]

My father's family has been very good to me.

You didn't know? It's in my name.

[priorly]

He left when I was nine, but yes - thank goodness for the star over my birth.

Fitz? Fitzbastard?

[badgerlock]

Fitz.

It's FitzChivalry.

[He pauses.]

Fitz means bastard. Chivalry's bastard.

[priorly]

It means son, I thought, which seems far more reasonable. Again, why should what your father did reflect in any way on you?

[badgerlock]

Not where I'm from.

Because it does. Why do people think that way? I shouldn't imagine to know.

[priorly]

And that one fact has you turned out of whole cities? Where, I'm sure, just everyone was born in the secure grip of wedlock?

I'm sorry, it doesn't make any sense to me, that's all. Bastard has a newer meaning where I'm from.

[badgerlock]

Well.

It's a bit complicated. But the point is that it's not the first time.

[priorly]

Hm, well. As a less experienced evacuee, I'm going to take my time.

[badgerlock]

And so I'll ask again.

Do you need help?

[priorly]

I've been offered a place in a carriage, with a woman I hardly know.

[badgerlock]

Well.

If that's all right with you.

[priorly]

And if it's not? Will you throw me over your saddle?

[badgerlock]

I could but you wouldn't be comfortable.

[priorly]

True romance rarely is.

[badgerlock]

[He laughs.]

Are you a prophet as well?

[priorly]

I

[There are more words but they choke off for a moment]

Did I tell you that?

[badgerlock]

[There's a pause.]

No.

You remind me of a prophet I know. Why?

[Another pause.]

Are you?

[priorly]

I can't just remind you of a prophet you know. What, do we all look the same to you?

[Yes, the italics are audible. He's startled. ]

...Do we?

[badgerlock]

You all certainly speak to me the same way.

[Sharp side of his tongue and all.]

And well. You're not as pale.

[priorly]

Hm. Hm. Well.

[A little bluster as he tries to get back on track.]

My condolences to your friend, who must be on a par with paper to judge by the state of me. As it happens I am a prophet, as redundant an occupation as that may now be.