Semi-Open

[fireandhoney]

WHO: Finn, Lucien, anyone who wants to to hire the Dark Brotherhood, and others
WHERE: Various Porter Cities
WHEN: Before the Swear-In
WHAT: The Dark Brotherhood decides to throw off investigators by doing contracts before the Swear-In.
WARNINGS: Talk of murder, and off-screen murder.


Closed to Lucien Lanchance
Finn made sure to wear dark clothing, including his black hoodie, as he usually does when he needs to visit Lucien. He also stayed invisible for a good deal of the trip, to make sure he wasn't followed. Upon reaching the house, he checks for traps, which is more of a habit at this point, and unlocks the door.

He and Lucien arranged a meeting for today, and Finn has things to pick up from the Sanctuary anyway.

"Brother?"

Various Porter Cities
The plan was for the Dark Brotherhood to take care of a contract or two before the Swear-In, not go to the actual event while laying low, and then pick up business again after everybody returned. With the recent high-profile murder under their belt, they need to keep investigators off their tail.

He'll be keeping his ears open for contracts.

During the Swear In
Finn claims that he's missing the Swear-In due to not feeling like being too social after the holidays. Besides, lots of imPorts skip the Swear-In, and sometimes Finn really does need a few weeks to get his energy back.

For now, Finn's at the music store, getting his lute re-stringed. While that's going on, he's looking at a bass guitar. "I could see myself playing that."

[If you want a prompt, hit me up on plurk: arwingyoshi

Comments

I am free of the work conference hello

[applewatcher]

The only traps in the house are his, and he considered it a worthwhile courtesy to disarm them for his brother.

Still, he waits until he hears the voice to make himself known, stepping into view with a smile and a bow. "Welcome home."

[fireandhoney]

"Always a pleasure to see you, brother."

Finn pulls his hood back, and then pulls out a plastic container he had hidden under his hoodie. "I made cookies."

[applewatcher]

"How thoughtful of you." A quality that Finn really did exude, save for on the days when there was something that needed saving.

"I should have done something similar, but I'm afraid I've been quite busy. Maintaining a consistent public identity with the new housing assignments will be a challenge for some time."

[fireandhoney]

"Would you believe I'm living with my friend Jonathan now? The alien, I mean." Finn sets the container down and opens it up, taking out a cookie. Chocolate chip.

[applewatcher]

"I've been given a place with our young friend Boba Fett," he said, taking a one of the cookies. "Which is quite to my liking. Unfortunately, it seems the local administration has apparently decided that De Chima #001 is a safe place to sent imPort teens." He rubbed his eyes, chuckling to himself.

"There's three more of them. I suppose it's good to get Boba in a house with others his own age, but by the Void, I forgot what it was like to deal with this."

[fireandhoney]

"We've got a teenager living with us too." He hasn't had a chance to really talk with his other roommates. He got kind of used to living by himself.

"How is Boba these days?"

[applewatcher]

"Oh? I hope they aren't giving you much trouble." Because that's what he thinks of teenagers at the moment: Mostly trouble.

"He fares well. He's recovered from quite a shock he took before the new year. Someone compromised his identity." Always a terrible sensation, to suddenly lose control of the situation in that manner.

[fireandhoney]

"Not really." He's just glad nobody's complained about his cat. Even if she seems to think Jonathan's skin suit is a toy.

"That doesn't sound good." He remembers how suspicious the boy was when he offered to help dispose of the body. Then again, a strange adult offering to help a teenager is probably best met with suspicion.

[applewatcher]

"I've given him what advice I can, but it still preoccupies him. Understandably." He sighs. "I do wish he would consent to joining us, but without the Night Mother's guidance, I am not certain he would ever be chosen in the first place."

Perhaps that was why their numbers remained so dire. The Night Mother might tell Finn when someone appropriate was found, and they simply hadn't received word.

[fireandhoney]

"Hard to say. I mean, obviously I was recruited without Mother's insight. Maybe Mother would recruit Boba." Nazir had taken it upon himself to find promising recruits recently, and he had picked some good, loyal murderers willing to listen to Finn and Nazir.

"The boy who hired me to kill Grelod the Kind said he wanted to be an assassin when he got older. I'm hoping he makes his way to our family one day."

[applewatcher]

"You were, but she had not chosen a Listener for years. There was no other choice but to act as one would hope she desired. And yet here, we still receive the Black Sacrament." It was an uncomfortable idea to even consider, but if he had learned nothing else from talking to Finn, it was that their Mother conducted Family affairs entirely according to her own will, often in ways her children could not understand.

"I hope so. Maybe sooner rather than later. Growing up within the Brotherhood is a better life that such a young client likely leads."

[fireandhoney]

"The important thing for now is that we can keep doing her work." It's a bit weird hearing the prayers in his own head. He certainly hopes that was Sithis' machinations, since they can't reach Mother in this world.

"Given that he dug up his own mother's bones to perform the Black Sacrament just so someone would kill the old bat who ran the orphanage he ran away from, I'd have to agree."

[applewatcher]

"Indeed." It was especially vital for him, no matter how many reservations he had about their tenuous position and the Night Mother's silence.

"I hope he may soon be with you, then. It certainly was a poetic effort on his part, but he undoubtedly needs further guidance." He had no small measure of sympathy for the plight of the orphaned child, but the greater part of him now was focused on the potential they had within them. How much happier they might be if they could find a family.

[fireandhoney]

"Now that we're back on our feet, I hope I can bring the boy, and some of his friends, into our fold. Ironically, the only kid we have with us right now is a grown woman." Realizing that sounded weird, he explained, "She's a vampire who was turned as a child."

[applewatcher]

"Oh? Would I know her?" It had been two hundred years, but many vampires--well, fewer, after the Purification--had been with the Brotherhood for that long.

[fireandhoney]

"Her name's Babette. She's a little Breton girl, was probably about ten when she was bitten. She won't tell me how old she really is." For all he knows, she's old enough to have lived through Jagar Tharn usurping the Emperor.

[applewatcher]

He brightens. "Oh! Yes, I do remember her. She is--was, I suppose--in the Wayrest Sanctuary. Quite skilled in her innocent act." He watched the figmentary murderers around them, though his mind is elsewhere.

"I'm pleased to hear she still lives. We lost many of our vampiric brethren to heresy... twelve years ago, now. The Black Hand dealt with them, but the loss was keenly felt." While many of the Crimson Scars had been younger, more impulsive vampires, some of their eldest had also fallen to the Purification. Decades and centuries of devotion turned against the Brotherhood in less than a year. It had been a shocking event, among the first crises he'd encountered as a Speaker. Unfortunately, it seemed, he could not handle all of them so appropriately.

[fireandhoney]

Well, know he knew that she was at least two-hundred, and older if she could play the innocent even back then. "She was one of the few survivors of the Sanctuary raid."

Her specter was probably up in her usual spot, near the poison garden. "We also had a werewolf among us. He was married to the Sanctuary Mistress, and he wasn't as lucky as Babette and Nazir."

[applewatcher]

"I'm afraid you'll have to clarify: A raid in Wayrest, or one of the Skyrim sanctuaries?" Or perhaps both.

A single werewolf among them. In Skyrim. That was a sad statement, whether Finn knew it or not. "It is a shame you could not see the Brotherhood of our time. We had our faults, but our living family had so much more to offer."

[fireandhoney]

"The Falkreath Sanctuary raid. The one that killed most of my last Family." Finn had told himself many times that it was Astrid's hubris that got them killed, but he still felt the stench of failure for not seeing through her until it was too late.

"I wish more than anything that I could have been part of the Family during that era, even if I wasn't Listener, or even part of your family. I brought us back from the brink and we're revered and feared again, but we're still a shadow of what we once were for now."

[applewatcher]

"I have no doubt that your tenure will honor our Mother and Father. Given what you've accomplished thus far and the opportunity that strife can bring, the Brotherhood has a chance to renew itself." As the Unholy Matron saw fit. Perhaps she had grown tired of their old ways. Or she had simply allowed them to fail, as a mother teaching her children how to conduct themselves without her constant guidance.

He didn't know. And could not know while he yet lived. In death, maybe, he would learn these things. But that was still to come.

[fireandhoney]

"I'm bringing back the Tenets, and we had contracts on a fairly regular basis after I killed Emperor Mede." The Dark Brotherhood had proved that nobody was safe, not even the ruler of the Empire. He had to carry out some of the contracts himself, of course, since the Brotherhood was very understaffed at the moment.

[applewatcher]

That brought a smile to his face, despite having heard Finn tell of it before. To kill an emperor was dangerous, *daring*, and had seen the Morag Tong driven from their place of power in a past era. But how glorious it was to think of. "And the turmoil that death brings will be full of opportunity. I have great hope for your time." It would be precarious, but they could rebuild.

"And I will be glad to see it, one day. When I come to visit you."

[fireandhoney]

Sometimes it could get almost surreal, to speak to Lucien's past self, and having him know full well that they would meet again during Finn's time, even if he wouldn't remember that upon returning home.

"In my time, there's actually a little museum dedicated to the cult that brought an end to the Septim line. The locals were outraged, but the guy who ran it felt that it was important to preserve history."