Right after entering liminal

[wolvering]

By the Crone's saggy, dessicated paps! Those mangy, fly-struck, thrush-footed, worm-begot sons of dungheaps! To Gifnu's deepest hells with you, Trumps. You--

[The tirade continues with more creative swearing and cursing, even slipping into different languages a time or two, for a solid minute more. But eventually Pod runs out of steam, and there's a moment of silence before she addresses the network with more calm.]

So do these Trumps mock everyone with their overlays or am I just that unlucky?

Comments

[solvethepuzzle]

[He's familiar with a lack of tone blurring sincerity, since he speaks tonelessly himself. (He is capable of broadcasting tone on the network, but his natural way of speaking is flat.)]

What were you going to say instead of orphan? [Yes, he caught that pause. He's good at things like that. But things like tact? Not his strong point.]

[wolvering]

There was no way to know if she really was a bastard.

[That comes out quickly, almost defensive.]

Her father could have died while they were forced to make the trip to Bando.

[solvethepuzzle]

Did he? [He's kind of getting the impression that the assumptions were actually true.]

[wolvering]

I don't know. Her mother died birthing her during a terrible storm. No one had time to ask about the father before the woman died. It's easy enough to imagine slipping and falling from a steep path in poor weather.

[Most people would hear that, call it excuses, and then decry the child as a bastard at home, Pod knows. She's trying not to think about it.]

[solvethepuzzle]

That's flimsy evidence to base an accusation upon. I take it parentage matters a great deal where you're from?

[wolvering]

Yes, very much so. In some places being a bastard matters less than in others, but...

[Pod lets it hang. He can probably guess, unless his home is very much like Yerrih, and even there bastards aren't treated the same as fully legitimate children. Less badly than in the corners of Kelneth, or worse, Casori, but!]

[solvethepuzzle]

People worry about many unimportant things. [And then there's him, who doesn't worry about things that are important. Like being a decent person. But this, like many social constructs, is just stupid to him. He's part of a succession, but it's based on his ability and not his birth.]

[wolvering]

I cannot argue that at all. I can only pray that will change.