(1512) Tiernan, Asa, Josephine

[Josephine Sterling]

Though she was indeed pleased by the compliment the Prince had paid her, Josephine was a tad disappointed. She had been unusually amused by the thought that the Neonate would leave the conversation entirely unaware of who the Prince was, yet she could not avoid using the proper titles now that she, herself, had been directly addressed. Particularly not after the slight rift which had formed not long ago between the Prince and herself. A rift she had caused, in particular.

But, alas, the end of this silly game was no large matter. No doubt it would still be amusing to see the neonate's reaction to her reply.

"Why thank you, Alder Prince Clarke. I was quite taken, myself, when I found this raiment. Also, might I say, your own garments are most impeccable this evening, Your Grace."

That thin veneer of civility spread atop the conversation, the Reeve allowed a small smile to curl her lips as she turned to the new transfusion standing near them.

"And it is likewise a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Braggs. Tell me, where do you hail from? Is it a Domain which similarly valued such piquant jests?"

[Asa]

As Josephine, then Tiernan, spoke, Asa's eyes drifted over Court.

It wasn't lost on him that, amidst the genuflections, there was hardly any sign of welcome of the newly instated --and Bloodied-- Reeve. Or that the Seneschal seemed to have no such trouble.

Two acts of power, exercised, yet one was more... visceral... than the other.

"Apology not accepted," Asa answered with a charming smile. "Simply because it's not necessary. I was attempting to deduce your Familial origins before you deduced my identity; so I withheld that introduction, but it seems that I have lost."

Asa kept smiling, lest the man take the statement as an indictment. Still torn between the Daeva and Gangrel, the flamboyance kept making for a convincing argument.

"I believe the Reeve hails from the British Isles herself," he continued, gesturing towards the raven haired woman with the accent.

"I imagine a journey of that length would be difficult, if it were taken after the Embrace?"

[Cayce]

"Indeed, I do hail from Britain. As such, the closest I have been to the bonny shores of Ireland is the Isle of Mann," the Reeve replied crisply. "For, though Ireland is much closer to the land of my Embrace than this Domain, our peoples have warred long against one another and thus to travel beneath the vault of an Irish night would be, in many ways, more difficult than traversing the Atlantic to America's shores. Such a trip wasn't terribly hard to orchestrate in this age of jet propulsion, yet I know that that wasn't always so. When did you happen to cross the seas, Mr. Braggs? No matter how difficult it was, it seems that those piquant jests were sustaining enough for you."

[Asa]

I love man?

By the time he'd replayed it, and sorted out the homophonic expression, Tiernan was talking again. It was probably the last conversation they would ever have. Something about the man's accent came across as more Drunken Pirate than Irish, and grated at the nerves. Really, it was for the man's own safety. The Beast within had no love for Drunken Pirates, either.

"Have a good evening, Mr. Braggs," Asa answered with a nod.

If the question about a later conversation hadn't been rhetorical, it was now. Asa's eyes drifted over the man's Priscus, Juan Cordoba.

I wonder if she asked her Sponsor about the Monomacy.

[Josephine Sterling]

"Perhaps," Josephine agreed simply, lapsing into stillness until the fresh Demon chose to walk away. For, though, she had no opinion of the man's accent, there was a certain...lack of deference that she found troubling in him. Almost as troubling as Fernandez, though Fernandez' true crime had been giving her excessive cause. Braggs, however, was for the moment merely something that had breezed through, perhaps to fade, perhaps to stay. Only the Divine could say...

Thus, once the Irishman had left, the Reeve turned to the Prince.

"So, your grace, how have you found the recent nights, if I might ask? I trust that ennui has been kept at bay?"

[Asa]

"I've often found that ennui can be kept at bay with innuendo, applied liberally," Asa answered.

He watched the Daeva depart into the shifting whorls of bodies in conversation.

"But let us talk of another's recent nights, and how they have been found. Josephine Sterling. Ex Sanctified, newly Unconquered." Asa's voice was gentle, but rose and fell with a near theatrical announcer's cadence. "Risen to Reeve, and also rendering personal Final judgement." It might be a sense of duty that brought her to his conversational orbit...

...Or it might not.

"...But always impeccable in appearance."

Asa offered a smile with the side of humor.

"How does the Reeve find her nights?"