IC CONTACT

[ukan]

This is Lark Tennant, leave a message.

[Or a note, or a drop-by]

Comments

[the_executioner]

"You might be honest, but you like to be cagey too. Richard won't like that. Edward probably won't dislike you, but he's not like most people. He's...an assassin, specializing in preternatural targets."

[ukan]

"...Strangely I've never met anyone like that. Someone who hunts things like me, specifically. We mostly end up dead because we're tangled up in the drug trade and the black market and no one is smart enough to do it carefully." Anita is the executioner, he knows. But she isn't cruel and she doesn't waste lives. "Do you get along with him?"

[the_executioner]

She gives him a look, when he says he never met anyone like that. She's literally sitting in front of you, Lark.

"Yeah, we're friends." A thought slides through her eyes, but she doesn't take it back.

[ukan]

A stern look. "You don't hunt us for sport. Even when people were making wild assumptions about you on your first day, you never came across as an indiscriminate killer. You do it in a legal, sanctioned way." And yes, he noticed that expression. "Tell me about him?"

[the_executioner]

"I still do it. It's my job. It's Edward's too. He enjoys it, in a way I never will, but unless he's helping me, he does it only for money, one way or another."

It's not what she'd thought about, but she's not sure she should share that specific tidbit. It's hard to understand, if you aren't in the situation.

[ukan]

"Enjoying it makes it a dangerous line," he drawls. He's sure she knows that.

But it is that unspoken thing that has his real interest. "Have I ever told you about the things I did here as an inmate? Or at home?"

[the_executioner]

"If anyone can walk it, it's Edward." She's casually confident in that.

"You mentioned a little bit about who you were before."

[ukan]

"I don't find any pleasure in killing, I'm never going to be that person. But I'm sure I did plenty that would have made me eligible for execution. Especially since I never faced any punishment for eating a woman and murdering another and stabbing a man in the eye because he disappointed me."

Among other, more elaborate crimes.

"Is it sadism then, that makes him enjoy it?"

[the_executioner]

There's a lot to unpack there, but what makes her blink is the eating someone thing. It's distracting, and she has to look at Lark hard for a long moment, to reconcile that statement.

"Jason almost ate me once." It's not at all the answer to his question. "Twice, actually. He couldn't control himself."

[ukan]

"A full moon sort of thing?" Lark never has to deal with that, although there are other things that can push him close to it.

[the_executioner]

"That, and the poachers that had us cut up my arm to make me more... appetizing."

Hey mind is just going from one thing to the next. Because now she's thinking about Richard at the theatre, watching the people like he was picking out the weak ones from the herd.

"He's not a sadist. Edward is good at what he does. He enjoys the work, but it's not about suffering. If that happens it's incidental. Occupational hazard."

[ukan]

A long look, before he decides they're circling back to that once he's got a better picture of Edward. Poachers? That's a story that needs full attention.

"What does he get out of it, then? Besides money. Investment bankers do it for money, they don't enjoy it."

[the_executioner]

"I don't know. If I were to ask, he'd just smile at me."

And that's the truth. No one could keep a secret like Edward.

[ukan]

"So those poachers." Eyebrows raised just a bit.

[the_executioner]

Her own brows go up in echo.

"What about them?"

[ukan]

A laugh that's almost a bark. "Anita."

[the_executioner]

"What?" She is confused. Spell it out, Lark.

[ukan]

He leans back, arms loosely crossed. "I assume they weren't poaching you but they still cut up your arm? So what happened?"

[the_executioner]

"Uh, long story really short: The Swan King was fed up being Marcus's flunky- the current Ulfric. And started a poaching and trafficking ring where he kidnapped local wereanimals to be hunted for sport. Edward, Ricard and I caught up to him, things got bad before they got better."

[ukan]

The point he comes back to is: "The Swan King." He decides if he learns nothing else on the ship, he needs to know how vast the supernatural web is in her world. "What is he?"

[the_executioner]

Buckle up then Lark.

"He was the leader of the Swanmanes. They're shifters who are either cursed or born. They aren't contagious, like lycanthropes."

[ukan]

"When I change, I look like a wolf. I've been mistaken for a dog. I've been adopted as a dog. But I've seen that's rare. Other lycnathropes are either bipedal monsters, or giant wolves. So when you say he's a swan, is he some sort of human-bird hybrid?" He should have a more serious question than this, but he doesn't yet.

[the_executioner]

"Not that I know of. He did have down feathers instead of hair, in human form. As far as I'm aware, he transformed just into a swan and back, but he could do it at will."

[ukan]

"You'd think that wouldn't be intimidating, but I saw a swan chase a man through the park once," he muses. "When you graduate, I might have to beg you for a tour of your world."

[the_executioner]

"He seemed to take it as an insult that he changed into a prey animal. And I wouldn't hold your breath on that graduation thing."

Surprisingly, it doesn't sound angry, but tired. Something shifted, but it's really just trading one problem for another.