(1111) Acknowledging Eugene

[Asa]

Eugene & Ricardo

Asa studied the squirelly little Haunt for a moment. He'd lived in Sacramento long enough to understand what was being said without asking for clarification. He addressed the man the way he introduced himself; you didn't go to Europe and drive on the right side of the road... and if you did, you were the one that was wrong.

It was an awkward position to be in, because he didn't particularly want to publicly point this out to his clanmate, and he wondered why Eugene couldn't have just blathered the usual platitudes and let them all get on with their Requiems.

"So, let me make sure I have this right," Asa mused, gesturing at Eugene.

"Instead of telling him later, in private, that he may want to change how he introduces himself, you decided to tell me that I'm doing something wrong -- but 'ha ha' you're doing it right? All of this, of course, in lieu of introducing yourself properly for Acknowledgment?"

Asa cocked his head to the side and gestured for Eugene to continue.

"Tell me how you thought that was going to work out for you."

[Asa]

The hand moved again, pointing casually at Eugene.

"Wait a minute. Let's talk about 'Ms. Jennifer' now. Are we just reversing names for everyone now? Is her first name Hazelton? This is important to me, because I'm Invictus, and I wouldn't want to offend her. Since you've installed yourself as Sacramento's new expert on protocol and etiquette, maybe we should go through everyone's names?"

Asa turned to Martha, and gave her a mock serious look.

"Miss Villiers, should one of us be taking notes? Or rounding up the Domain in a line for proper titling?"

[Martha Villiers]

Tiny Martha was uncertain where the Mercurial Prince's mood might settle on this. Hoping that the mock serious look suggested that the Prince perhaps felt his displeasure at Eugene's folly had being adequately expressed. He'd even offered subtle hints at correctives too.

The Prince's mood seemed light for the present, so Martha was inwardly delighted for the chance to play along.

She nods eagerly. Twin tails bobbing in scholastic eagerness. Her own tone matches the Prince's; "Oh...Majesty, notes! Notes! It seems terribly complicated!"

Her wide eyed expression as one belonging to a schoolgirl bewildered by a complex math problem. But she didn't want to take it too far, she was Herald, not Jester.

[Asa]

Asa sighed.

He'd reached the point where he felt like he wasn't going to get anywhere with the man; that he was dealing with social ineptness that rivaled Hatori.

"All right," he said, holding out his hands like a book.

"Have you read the Laws? Left to right?"

[Asa]

The humor left Asa's face and he shook his head slightly.

"I didn't say 'And'. I said 'To'. While there may have been some humorous intent, it wasn't a question entirely without merit. You've demonstrated a completely arbitrary decision making process on name arrangement and etiquette," Asa said, calmly but firmly.

And a complete lack of any intuition of when to just say 'Yes, Sir' and shut up.

"Go ask your Priscus where the Barrens are, and then stay there until the next formal Court."

Asa paused.

"And, really, just nod and say 'Yes, sir' this time."

[Alice Brown]

Alice's expression isn't quite a good reflection of how she feels. It shows concern, though all she has to worry about is to not to laugh too hard.

And I really was afraid my prejudices were completely based on nothing.

No matter how amusing this was the Daeva only narrow her eyes, to keep them on Eugene. She wants to see him going to Sidor.

I'm sure he still knows a nice spot in the Barrens for his family.