Leather and fine wine

[shardofwinter]

The days are getting darker, the air has started to bite. Naturally this means that a certain Winter spirit is starting to brighten. With Hazel's beautiful influence all around him, he's been spurred on to keep busy and ready himself to do an equally (if not better) job. While people may have seen him marching around the Nexus, often with full arms, today he's taking the time to stay in the Nexus to do a little work. Back on his world the weather took a turn into torrential rain. Here, however, it's dry. Cold, blustery, but dry.

Reynard has his trademark leather coat spread out on one of the tables in the Plaza. Two pairs of boots are waiting on the ground, one pair noticeably newer and smaller than the other. His feathered hat rests on one of the chairs, carefully weighted down with a brush. Perhaps it's no surprise then that Reynard is dressed rather lightly then, with his coat all laid out. It's around this table that Reynard moves, brushing and wiping and occasionally taking a sip from a cup. Those who approach will be met with the rich scent of mulled wine and the more cloying smell of whatever he's using to treat the leather.

Finally he pauses for a moment, thinking over his cup before asking, "What is your least desirable quality? What could you stand to improve about yourself?"

Comments

[outpostcook]

Kinner approaches the stranger, clad in his usual polar gear. He's noticed that the air's turning colder, which is partly why he keeps his winter coat and hood on. The Nexus isn't Antarctica, and will be nowhere near as dangerous, but winter is winter. If nothing else, the cook has learned not to take chances. Sitting down with a cup of his own, he turns to the other man, a thin smile on his face.

"I...I wish I could defend myself a little better. And that I was a little braver. I'm no coward, to be clear, but I sometimes freeze up when I feel threatened..." The incident with the Thing wasn't really his fault, since he was pretty sure the alien had hypnotized him, but he wishes he could make sure that nothing would get the jump on him like that again. "I made a serious mistake where I came from, one that cost me my life, and if I had a second chance I'd make sure to watch my back more closely."

[brother_alone]

Is Winter so close already?

The Canadian's sense of time is all out of whack these days. He spent so long lost in his own head this year that he can hardly believe it's November. He's slow on his approach, never quite sure what temperament Reynard will be in or how long the good mood will last but as ever unable to ignore the spirit either.

Especially with that question.

For a man who detests everything about himself, the only thing holding Joshua back is where does he even begin?

"Can't fix crazy, Reynard. God knows I've fucking tried."

[sweetcandygirl]

Despite the weather... Harley is still content in her unusual outfit. The cold reminds her of whenever she would go see Mr. Freeze. Cold, enough to get her teeth chattering a bit. But not enough for her to change out of those glittery short-shorts and ripped T-shirt.

When she approaches Reynard, she notices the two pairs of boots. And just breathes in the scent of leather and wine.

"Notta-damn-thing." Harley just had a long talk with one of her dead friends, thanks to Hazel. And so she is not weighed down by 'undesirable' qualities. She loves herself. Just the way she is.

"But there is always room for improvement. Learning a new skill. A new language. Making new acquaintance."

[invisiblebonds]

Robin was supposed to be a simple passerby when he heard the question, which caused him to pause. "I guess my amnesia's something that could be considered my least desirable quality," he says. "It's a struggle when you can't remember everyday things."

[kate_mcnab]

Kate has her hands stuffed into the pockets of a red coat. She hesitates before approaching, but the question draws her in. It's not so very far from something she's been thinking about anyway. Two pathways, two different possible answers. Or maybe...

"Time management?" she says, as much a guess as an answer.

[lovesuwithknives]

Azwel is very warmly dressed on the regular--robes are quite good for keeping the cold out. Then again, he'd insist that he'd be just as comfortable without them. Lord only knows he's lost his clothing often enough during a fight.

Not to worry, though, he's fully dressed right now. He's drawn not only by the sight of work being done, but also the smells.

The question simply means he's going to stay.

"I haven't any. At least, no-one has told me of any." Well, except Grøh, but he's all kinds of bitter and will say any number of horrible things....

[shardofwinter]

As a general rule, anyone dressed for Winter by the time Autumn hits gets a certain amount of Reynard's approval. He's being somewhat scant with it this year, but the attire still gets a faint smile from him. That is, until the stranger answers him.

Reynard eyes the other man up and down slowly. "You're looking rather well for a dead man."

[shardofwinter]

"I did say improve, not fix," he points out. With his past encounters with Josh he knows he shouldn't have a faint smile on his lips, but he does. "And crazy is… very much up for debate. It depends on the kind of madness, and what someone considers 'improving' it."

There's a small box tucked away under the table, which Reynard roots through before holding up another cup. "Would you like a drink?"

[shardofwinter]

Reynard stays still, watching Harley's approach over the edge of his cup as he sips at his drink. Her answer is… Well. Not what he expected. It shows in his puzzled frown and the way his lips roll shut, open, and then shut again as he works through a few responses.

Eventually he squints at her, leaning forward ever so slightly, "Are you sure that's your final answer?"

[shardofwinter]

"Amnesia is more of a… condition than a quality," Reynard says with a roll of his wrist. He takes another sip of his drink. "I was asking after something relating to you personality. Or habits, at a stretch."

[shardofwinter]

"Time management?" His stifled laugh is good natured. "This isn't a job interview, my dear. Just a question from a stranger."

Leaning against the table, he looks up to the sky as he considers a better way of phrasing his question. "Think of it this way: If you could get rid of any of your flaws, what would you choose?"

[shardofwinter]

Now then, isn't this person dressed oddly… Warmly, at least. Maybe it's this foreign look that doesn't sit right with Reynard, but something definitely doesn't. It's that vague feeling of being around a predator that he can never quite explain. He's not afraid, but he'll allow himself a healthy wariness.

Then again it could all be down to the egotistical answer delivered in a less than egotistical fashion.

"Everyone has something. Nobody's perfect and everyone has something they'd like to improve about themselves." Reynard waves a hand before setting it on his hip. "Hubris, for example…"

[coldsong]

Loki is not at his best these days. The shock of encountering his mother's spirit, however valuable that conversation has been, is still with him. He's been warned of Reynard's existence, and if he knew who he was approaching, he would probably not do so. One seasonal spirit with the power to bring forth heartbreak is more than enough.

Still, this is his kind of weather. Some people complain when the wind gets sharp enough that the chill can bite through their clothing without tearing the seams. Loki likes it. He hates the reason he likes it, but he can't deny the satisfaction of the cold against his skin.

The smell of mulled wine is appealing, and he pauses in his walk to enjoy it, only to turn his head away at the question asked.

"Oh, but there are so many options!" He says lightly, bitterness gentle and muted but not hidden. "How could I choose a single one?"

[shardofwinter]

This is one of those answers that appeals to him, despite being indecisive. The freezing rain of Winter has a habit of finding the cracks in everything it lands on, and when it freezes… Well, that's what the beautiful frost patterns are. Flaws highlighted in elegance. Equally as enjoyable as untouched snow.

Reynard leans back against the table, since he might be listening to several answers in a moment. "Narrowing it to a handful usually helps. I'm sure there's one that stands out above the others once you clear the clutter."

[sweetcandygirl]

"Ohhhhh! Is this one of those game shows! Do I get to call a friend and check to see if my answer is okay?"

Harley smiles. Her strange behavior is likely the reason behind why Hazel found the woman to be so vexing.

"See... that is the thing... I could ask a dozen different people. And sure a small handful would say 'Nothing Harley, I like you for you' because they are my friends. But there are those who would say something else."

"Why waste my time trying to fix what they perceive as wrong? It would be endless... you can't make anyone happy these days. There is always something wrong... something undesirable."

"I am the one who has to live with my choice." Harley remembers what her dead friend had said to her very clearly. "I gotta be happy for me. And I am."

[shardofwinter]

Sarcasm is not particularly strange to Reynard. He lives in Scotland. The wettest country with the driest humour. Whether she meant it as sarcasm or not, that's how he takes it.

He watches her with the bemused, pinched smile of a man watching some stranger's child earnestly act at being grown up.

"Confidence is all very… charming. I'm not saying you shouldn't be confident, but people are flawed. Inherently. Everything is flawed. If you don't see your own, then you're blind and that is, in itself, a flaw," he explains without malice. Vague amusement, and uncertainty of her honesty, perhaps. "Being able to see where you can improve as a person is more valuable than proclaiming your self-declared perfection."

[coldsong]

"I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious," he quotes mildly out of Hamlet, "with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven?"

He's in a mood today.

But the catch to being a skilled liar is this: you cannot always lie. That is too predictable. Someone who can be relied upon to lie every time he is asked something may as well be telling the truth. You have to tell the truth, or part of it, sometimes. Even when--especially when--that truth is uncomfortable.

Turning toward the other man, he folds his arms and takes a step or two closer. "Do you know that voice that humans call a conscience, that is in the back of their heads, they say, telling them right from wrong? Mine does not do that. It instead lists the options available to me that could create the most chaos and ill-feeling first, and only once those are out of the way does it begin to consider more constructive avenues."

"Granted, sometimes chaos is a constructive avenue, but not quite as often as the opportunity to create it arises."

[sweetcandygirl]

"But where is it written that I can't be confident with myself, flaws and all? My flaws make me who I am. I wouldn't call them undesirable qualities."

Harley bounces a little, trying to explain her chaotic thought process. "And if everything is flawed... then really there is no way anyone is going to improve everything about themselves. And I never said I think myself to be perfect... because I ain't... but at the same time I am pretty damn happy right now, seeing how far I have come, and how much I have improved as a person."

[shardofwinter]

This works out rather well. He gets to have a drink with a show. A somewhat darkly dramatic show, but a show nonetheless. A scene of a person being painted right before his eyes. Folding one arm while the other allows him to sip intermittently, he's a perfectly good audience for Loki's soliloquy.

It's not that he particularly wants to interrupt this flow of thought, but he's genuinely curious when he asks, "Have you thought about trying to change that? The way your mind works?" Perhaps it's more prudent to ask, "Would you want to?"

[delphicbooksandbaubles]

She adjusts her hood and ties her scarf better, and shivers slightly. A tune pops in her head that's a cross of 'It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and Let it Snow' Before she shakes her head a mite. Too Early. nope nope nope. Even if she does make Gingerbread things on the regular. There are a few bags of those and other treats in the basket on her arm.

She sniffs the air a bit and twitches her nose. hmm, Leather's not bad..but she still tries to decipher those other scents. As she pads along, She tilts her head, when she comes upon the sight ah, that explains it. Though she seems a mite sad, does that mean Hazel's gonna make herself scare then? She's kinda torn about that..though it might help with Thor's problem. Though why does she feel like it might be better if they can work out. whatever issues, lessons etc was going on between them before that. She sighs slightly a little weary at the thought.

And then looks pondering rubbing her chin with a gloved hand. "I'm not sure about trait..but I wouldn't mind be..um more fluent and such round crowds.. one of my friends think I need a thicker skin sometimes." She replies..maybe sometimes..but sometimes she was one of the only ones who seemed to care about peacekeeping when most of the others got at each other's throats.

[shardofwinter]

Reynard stares at her until he's certain she's not messing with him. "Everyone dies. That does not mean they don't do their damnedest to stay healthy and living for as long as possible. Even if they accept that everyone dies. Just like people should strive to improve, even when they know they will never be perfect."

He's a spirit of the Season of death and even he knows this is Human Morality 101. It boggles his mind to hear what he's hearing.

"If you base who you are on your flaws then you should really re-evaluate your perspective." He thinks a moment before adding, "And your priorities." Another moment. "And your values."

[sweetcandygirl]

Harley stares at him for a moment. "You are the one who just said that everything is flawed. Just like... two seconds ago."

"And now you are telling me that I have to re-evaluate my perspective? Because of what? Am I supposed to try to fix all these flaws that are impossible to fix, because everything is flawed."

"To what end?" Harley puts her hands on her hips.

[coldsong]

"I've thought about it extensively, and come to no conclusion." He shrugs. "I am not human. The way my mind works may well be inherent to what I am."

"It does have its advantages. The ability to analyze a situation, to make a judgment call on what might motivate a new acquaintance. No, I would not want to rid myself of it entirely. I do wish it would be more businesslike and less gleefully destructive, that's all."

"However, now that I've told you far too much about myself, I'm going to have to insist on an introduction. My name is Loki."

[shardofwinter]

"Basic self-improvement?" He replies, squinting at her in confusion. "Like I said: You wouldn't stop going to the doctor just because you were comfortable with your own mortality. That's what this struggle of life is all about."

[sweetcandygirl]

Harley takes a moment to collect her thoughts. A smile on her lips.

"Well... I am one of those people who don't see doctors anymore. There is nothing they can do for me. And I am not going to waste their time... or mine... trying to find a cure."

She steadies her voice. Her broken Bronx accent fades slightly. "I believe in self-improvement. Like I said at the start, I will keep on learning. Finding a new language to learn. A new skill to figure out. Try not to burn water when I am cooking... that sort of thing."