A Bard and a Deacon (Private)

[Catherine Keyes]

Catherine paused, carefully calm.

Everything he made sense, perfect sense, with both her blood and with the way she had been treated. She was tolerated, not accepted; treated like entertainment at an arms length. She notices that her eyes are drifting downward in thought, and an expression of thought settled on her.

She opens her mouth before looking back at him. “I have no intention of appearing for a story and then leaving, Deputy Connery.” The conversation had left it’s original direction enough that she figured the title change was in order.

“Those of my blood are rarely accepted as it stands, however I like this city and would prefer to stay. And the amending of a wardrobe that I feel comfortable in is not particularly something I can do over night. What can I do? I do not want to be the shunned reporter forever.”

[Dillon Connery]

"I'm glad to hear that," Dillon says, with a nod. He obviously means it, though he seemed to have little doubt to the fact in the first place.

There is a brief glance away, while he purses his lips in thought. Looking back there is a subtle tilt to the Gangrel Deputy's head. "As for amending anything about your dress or actions, I wouldn't worry too much. In fact," he leans forward an inch or so, "why don't you take the ball and run with it?

"Just: get others involved. Take some time to form some real connections with those around you, and the rest will come naturally. Respect what you desire, and you will attract it."

Boy, he's just full of it, tonight. "There are many others who share your interests... you don't have to stand apart. Especially not in this Domain."

[Catherine Keyes]

She looked down at her hands.

Welcomed but never accepted. Always an outsider.

Catherine looked up, her head tilted slightly to the left, and her fingers laced together on her lap.

“That is the trouble, Deputy Connery. I do not know who they are, and it is difficult to just share, especially...”

Information was currency, she knew that. And he probably did too.

“I will try though, I just...don’t want to be seen as always digging. I am a storyteller and a historian, not an archeologist.”

[Dillon Connery]

Seeming to grasp where Catherine is either going to or coming from, Dillon forges ahead. His hands hover before him about a foot apart, palms facing each other as if holding an invisible box. "You have to look at yourself, Miss Keyes, and decide what parts of you are acceptable to share with everyone else. At least, with those others who are also willing to give a little of themselves. Because you will never get anything without giving something in return."

His hands return to a more casual pose, one holding the wrist of the other. "Example: I can tell you that the last time the name Dillon Connery appeared in a public record that had anything at all to do with me was the 1860 census. Besides some government stipends and some land and property sales, that is. I go by that name among Kindred, because it is the one I was born with. But the Driver's License in my wallet says something very different.

"Now, I really didn't tell you anything compromising to me personally, but that's a significant enough factoid that we could use for conversation until the sun comes up outside and we're both stuck here. See what I mean?" He shrugs. "It isn't much, but that's why they call it 'small talk'. Even vampires have to be willing to do that, sometimes.

"And it gets you further than you might think."

[Catherine Keyes]

She shifted, just slightly.

“I understand the concept of the price and currency of Knowledge. I just feel as if I am arriving to Sacramento after the standard has been in place, with people who have decided that that piece of information is too expensive to share.”

There were plenty of things she was willing to talk about concerning her past, but when she got shot down for wanting to know the name of the Reeve before Reeve Greyson.... it was like all memory of the time had been erased from the populace.

“I am willing to engage in ‘small talk’, I have not found many Kindred who were willing to actually engage in conversation with me for longer than a few minutes. Except some of the court officials.”

She paused in thought. “But then, I may not have been trying as much as I should. Perhaps I have become too engrossed in my own Blood to notice those around me as anything more than a means.”

She was musing aloud in a soft voice, before she dipped her head.

“I apologize Reeve Connery if I have caused you to feel this way.”

[Dillon Connery]

Dillon shakes his chin slightly, in a way to suggest dispelling Catherine's apology. "I don't take offense to any such thing. Besides being well aware of how isolated Kindred become within themselves, everything we do as individuals is a means to an end."

A twitch of a crooked smile, and then, "Without getting philosophical or too steeped in metaphor again: It's a matter of your point of view.

"You do right by you, and don't let anyone tell you that's wrong."

It might seem strange, that. Coming from the Reeve. But then... Dillon doing right by Dillon is to enforce His Majesty's Praxis as is expected of him. Ergo, someone doing right by themselves means being smart enough not to risk bringing a Gangrel Priscus and Theban Sorcerer down on them with the full authority of The Law.

[Catherine Keyes]

For a moment Catherine wondered when the conversation had shifted off of her inquiry into the Second Estate and onto how to properly present yourself into the Domain.

Not that it bothered her, but she was seeking, and the new Reeve...did he even know that he had shifted the conversation that far.

“I think you are right.” She said with a nod. “I will have to think on these things, but I appreciate your patience and advice, Sir.”

The smile spread across her lips.

“I do not wish to use up any more of your time tonight, but perhaps we could talk again at some point. And perhaps we could discuss the fact that Catherine is not the name I was born with, but it is the one I use in both Kindred and Kine society, for now.”

[Dillon Connery]

Mirroring Catherine's smile slightly with one of his own, Dillon nods to the information about her name. A little quid pro quo after all.

"I'd like that, Miss Keyes." He pauses slightly, only for conversational timing to cue a conclusion. He doesn't stand unless she begins to. "I will welcome you whenever duty permits me the time. God knows I'll be spending lots of it in that office."

He punctuates the statement with a friendly wink.

[Catherine Keyes]

The smile doesn’t leave her face, though her eyes drop self-consciously.

“Consider this as a statement of intention, then. I wish to speak further, Reeve Connery, on whatever topic you would discuss. May I find your door open next time I am looking.”

Catherine said with a seated bow, as befitting his office before standing. If she had been alive she might have blushed at the wink.

End Scene?

[Dillon Connery]

Agreed! Good scene! ^_^