(no subject)

[sythyry]

The Dentist's Despair [2 Trandary 4261]

Havune:That's wonderful news, Sythyry! It must delight you to be so easily bribeable -- or, rather, to have such a simple matter which your parent will offer you a bribe about.

Me:I certainly prefer it to following the orders of whoever's turn it is to give them.

Havune:Are you moving out, then?

Me:That wouldn't be kind to the rest of you, really.

Havune:No, but I wasn't asking precisely whether or not it would be kind.

Me:I think I will move out at the end of the term. I said I would stay for a full year, and stay a full year I shall. Despite every bit of offirrah in the house. Besides moving is a bother and a half, and the term starts tomorrow.

Havune wagged his tail broadly, and indicated four stew-encrusted leather pots that Dubaille had hidden under a chair over the last six days, rather than wash them.

Havune:Perhaps your new wealth could move us to a three-person apartment, in the way that takes no great amount of extra time or effort.

Yes, Dubaille is that bad. But no, he's not such a doorwayer to me as he is to Havune. I do not share a room with him, after all, and I might perhaps have shown him the trick of hiding pots.

Nonetheless, I am the brilliant conversationalist of Vheshrame. Any ordinary mortal would have been flabbergasted -- stunned -- shocked by such an idea ... would have gaped a moment in bewildered silence. (Unless they had thought of it already.) I, being the cogent and brilliant genius of repartee, simply chose to pause for a period of dignified, erudite quietude, as if to say, "This is a grave matter; it would be wrong for an immortal being such as myself to render a decision without undue deliberation."

I'm afraid that the difference was a bit too subtle for Havune, though. Especially as I forgot to keep flapping my wings, and was floating in front of him looking no doubt rather like a frog who has just eaten an arhoolie leaf instead of a fly.

Me:I wouldn't be sorry to see his tailtip tomorrow and none of the rest of him ever. I'm not sure that we could decently evict him, though.

Havune:If decency were a concern he should have had the decency to tell us the truth about his personal habits. If decency were a concern, he should clean his stewpots before they stink.

Me:I shall have to think on this further. After all, he is local nobility; one shouldn't mistreat him too much.

Havune:Sythyry, his title is entirely through his ex-wife. He was a dentist before he married her.

Me:That's what he was? I thought that's just what he was doing now for a bit of cash.

Havune:Yes, for he's got the training and the friends for it.

Me:Hardly one of the greater guilds, I imagine. Still, sending him to sleep under the boardwalk would be unkind. He won't see his children so easily there.

Havune:His children may thank you for that! When they're here they cry thoroughly to go home.

[Poll #173604]

Comments

[melskunk.livejournal.com]

I normally am the soul of tolerance and discretion (whaps laughing husband before continuing) but I do feel Dubaille presumes too much. I suspect you're only getting the tail's end of his misbehavior, and his stubborn clinging on to his title, wife, children and sense of entitlement is very damaging to himself and others. I do think letting him get to the end of his tether (though perhaps keeping an eye on him to make sure he's not, I don't know, eaten by a passing monster) is probably the kindest thing to do. I don't think he's really come to terms with his drop in status and other matters, but a hard shock might do just that, and perhaps make a better man out of him.
Though first I'd check to see if he really IS a dentist. I think Havunue has enough reason to omit the full truth of the matter out of sheer desperation.