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While the encampments can make their own breakfasts and such, Joachim wanted to 'branch out' as his sister insists upon, and try food from a different reigion. Sitting at a table, the knight is having a small meal of meat, boiled eggs, bread and a few fruits as the man is considering the information coming in from Dorset and Salisburian border. Still no word on Gwion yet, and he finds himself playing his fingers over the small blue and purple ribbon that was once in Lydia's hair.
Vesper enters the Inn with all the dimpling profusion of charm that comes so naturally to her. Her pause is only momentary, until dancing blue eyes land on Joachim, then it's to the older knight she fair skips. Looking fresh and dewy-eyed, she flounces into a chair, reaching over to snag a piece of apple from his plate. "Brother, my charming, wonderful, stoic brother! How do you fare on this most lovely of mornings?"
Failed.
Joachim checked his dex of 9, he rolled 11.
Failed.
Joachim checked his deceitful of 10, he rolled 16.
As she reaches for the apple, Joachim moves to smack her hand, but the girl manages to deftly avoid. "I am well." the knight offers, as he glances up from his thoughts. He meant to tuck the ribbon he was rubbing his finger over away, but instead, it seems it was that hand that Joachim attempted the swat with. "I would ask if you were staying out of adventure, but I might as well as the River Wylye to stop flowing. So instead, I will ask if you are enjoying yourself, my dear sister."
The apple is munched on with verve. Quiet verve, of course. She is still a Lady. When once more her mouth is clear, it splits into an ear-reaching smile. "Oh, in the extreme! I won my first performance round. You," she says pointedly, making a playful pout in the strong knight's direction, "were not there." Her clear-cutting blue eyes fall to the ribbon. "I can only guess what was more important."
Success
Joachim checked his chaste of 13, he rolled 9.
"I did not realize I was supposed to escort you in your every step of this tournament, Vesper." Joachim says as the stout knight offers a faint smirk as he tries to rise to his sister's challenge. "I am sure you did quite well. Perhaps when we dine with the Hortons, you can perform your song. One of the sisters is quite talented in song." As she points out at why he may have missed the competition, he moves to place the ribbon away. "I have not spent that much time with her, sister." he points out. "I have only had a dinner and cheered her own at the falconry events she was in."
The young knight lets out a small sigh. She may recognize it - especially with the way she weaves a spell on other men, Lydia may have pulled him into the same. The embrace of amor is strong, and Joachim lifts his container to drink from it so that he can cover for a moment. "I will do my best to make your next competition, Vesper." he promises. And she knows he's a knight of his word when he makes it.
Failed.
Vesper checked her vengeful of 7, she rolled 10.
Success
Vesper checked her forgiving of 13, she rolled 8.
As much as it is clear that she would like to, Vesper cannot stay mad at her older brother. The high arch of her cutting cheekbones soften, and the full lips that were almost pursed relax into something easier. "You do hurt my feelings when you do not show up, 'Chim," the Lady replies, lightly, but the undercurrent is earnest. "Yet show up to cheer on a Lady who is not yet family." Her head dips dramatically, ostensibly to hide the tears behind a veil of loose, lustrous curls. "But, I forgive you. I do love you so."
Success
Joachim checked his cruel of 7, he rolled 2.
"Come now, sister.." Joachim's eyes flash as he has caught this particular game before, and for once, the knight doesn't cave to her pout and crocodile tears. "You know I love you as my blood, but our blood does not build ties between other houses. An alliance by marriage with the House Horton would strengthen our ties in the North, and provide us with open connection to Up Avon." he points out diplomatically. "Unless you'd perfer, Lydia has a pair of brothers, I could speak to our father of matching you to one of them instead."
"However, if you require company that wholly, I will make sure that there are several House Guards in your shadow that will make sure you are provided for what you may need while we are in the tournament, my beloved sister." Though his voice is slightly strained, the thoughts of their brother still have him concerned.
Failed.
Vesper checked her valorous of 10, she rolled 13.
Success
Vesper checked her cowardly of 10, she rolled 5.
"No, no, no," Vesper looks up quickly, the shake of her bouncing curls wild and vehement. "I think I shall fare fine on my own. Twas only a momentary desire, dear 'Chim, fleeting as the North wind and just as capricious!" She reaches out to snag another apple slice from his rapidly diminishing plate. Diversion. "You are intent on marrying the Lady Lydia, then?"
Critical Success!
Joachim checked his honest of 10, he rolled 10.
"Lady Lydia.. is a pleasant distraction. But she's more than that." Joachim draws in a breath as the knight finishes eating for the moment, pushing his plate towards her so she may eat from it. "I have come to enjoy my conversation with her, even if she disagrees with me on certain things, I find the debate pleasurable. It has done me well to speak to her, as it has kept me from worrying too much about Gwion to the point where I find myself in darkness." the knight closes his eyes as he looks down.
"I would like to petition my father for the match with House Horton, surely. As our brother is married, that means I would be next in line. If.. our Houses were to agree to us, yes, I would like to seek Lydia's hand as mine, if she were amicable to the idea. But we both know.. that is not a decision for us to make. It is one to be made by my father and her older brother. I would like to speak to him before the end of the tournament to seek permission to advance us. If.. this meets with my father's approval. And." he glances up to his sister. "It would mean much to me should my sister support this decision. For the first time, Vesper, I feel joy in my heart, and it has come from her."
Failed.
Vesper checked her honest of 10, she rolled 15.
Success
Vesper checked her deceitful of 10, she rolled 3.
Vesper accepts the leftovers on his plate as her due, regally taking first one bite, and then another. All the while, she listens thoughtfully to her older brother, eyeing the larger knight with a younger sister's indulgent, protective mien. "Oh, 'Chim," she chides him laughingly, the gaiety of her tone a sparkle in the inn's dining room, "and they call me the dramatic one of the family. You say that you have never before felt joy in your heart?" She tuts him, shaking her pretty head. "Come now. But of course I will support anything that is good for you!"
There's a small smile that touches upon Joachim's face. "I thank you, Vesper. And yes, perhaps it was a moment of.. dramatics. I suppose that I just wished for you to understand how I feel about Lydia." He sighs, keeping his drink as the knight sets down the mug. "But enough about that, let's discuss what you have been up to since the tournament started. If there is a trail of knights and lords I will need to sort through that will be lining up at the manor for your hand that I will need to speak to Gwion about setting up a tournament for to have the right to court you, you should let me know now." And it sounds so utterly honest. As if he's just accepting that someday there will come a time that God only knows how many men will show up with Vesper's 'favors' and seeking her hand. Not that he'd ever believe that she would be impure - but her flirtations are already infamous.
None of the information that he has asked for about Lydia, and Vesper has retrieved, does she relay to her brother. Instead, she grasps at the change of subject with a will, twittering another laugh that fills the establishment with its musical sound. "Not yet, though I shall endeavor to make it interesting for you, at the very least, should it come to pass. I wish you no dull life, my brother. That, above all else, I wish for you. Aside from a few light flirtations, I have none so ardent. I seek only to make a name for myself at entertainer and healer. There is a patient I shall have to check on in a day or so. Sir Steffan de Wylye. He is quite handsome, at least."
"And this Steffan.. he has your attentions?" Joachim asks, using the line of questioning to lower the young woman's defenses. "I'm sure that you would know his likes and desires in a simple conversation with him, hmm?" And there's that door. He knows the two of them conversed after the knight left, and perhaps he's allowing her to graciously offer information.
Vesper giggles. It's a girlish sound, fitting coming from one as young and frivolous as she. "He has my attentions as much as any man could ever have my attentions," she teases, plucking up a grape from the plate and toying with its roundness between her nimble surgeon's fingers. "But I've no idea of his likes and desires, save that he seems a solid sort, and if that is any indication, one I would do well to steer clear of, for all his fine muscles. Do you not think so?"
Critical Success!
Joachim checked his merciful of 13, he rolled 13.
For a moment, Joachim's eyes are much like his father's when he knows that Vesper is withholding information or creating a falsehood. They are disappointed, however, he is forgiving of her. "I see." the knight offers quietly. "I suppose that you do not converse with all you meet as you did as a child. As such.. I suppose that it would only be fair to release you from the quest I asked you to partake upon." he says quietly, his voice steady, as he reaches for a piece of pear and picks it up to snack on it. "…I will just have to spend more time with Lady Horton to speak of her wants and desires and share my own so that I may learn much about her. Though her eyes did light up when I brought her a token to celebrate her victory in the falconry round."
"That is an excellent idea," Vesper tilts her chestnut head enthusiastically. "For if you have affections for the Lady, you really ought to spend more time around her, ought'nt you? Perhaps, you will be able to discern her true character, and any faults she may have, your staunch love might mend. One can only hope. If anyone could make a woman feel comfort over insecurity, I firmly believe that man to be you, 'Chim." That, too, is in earnest.
There's a delicate arch of a brow as Vesper speaks, Joachim plucking at the pear to take another bite of it. "So you believe that the Lady is insecure?" he asks curiously, the know glancing towards his sister with a confused look. He takes a bite from the pear as he reaches for his mead to take a draw from it. He waves the waitress over to refill his mug, the knight glancing to his sister. "And once things are settled, I'm sure that we can work to make sure you are properly situated so that you may have someone that may allow you to do as you will." A change, there. He usually would say something about her needing a steadying presence, someone to calm her wilds - but now.. he accepts that may never be the case. Now how did that happen?
"I believe that the lady uses haughtiness to mask the insecure desire to protect herself from being hurt, or from her perception of being made to look less than a lady, or unworthy," Vesper assesses, with her clinician's detachment of the situation. "In sum, she is a lady, concerned about how she is perceived by others." Vesper makes it sound like it's a bad thing. Her nose even wrinkles a little, as she plops another grape into her mouth to banish the thought with the sweetness of the fruit.
"Perhaps it is not insecurity, but prudence you speak of, Vesper." Joachim makes the correction. "It is not the same of our house as we wonder about the world around us. Surely you would not tell that the House Newton is insecure of itself, would you?" he asks, the knight studying his sister's eyes sharply now as he watches her warily.
"Two different situations to argue, 'Chim," Vesper replies, her canny, boisterous mind already reaching the conclusion of this conversation as it races ahead of her words. "One is a reflection of one's House, but one is not the whole of one's House. Would you say that my sometimes-rash actions make people call our House a rash one? No. We are still considered most proper, most pious. Why, just the other day I had a Lady compliment us on being such. It did not change my actions, though. I would not let it. If one is not true to ones' self, if one hides behind what one believes others might think, that is a forgery of life. And if one is truly like that? If that is all that comprises their self? Then I think it a poor match, unbalanced. You need a little life, a little verve, to balance you out, Hero of Mine Eyes."
Success
Joachim checked his generous of 16, he rolled 11.
"Perhaps, sister.." Joachim says as he finishes his drink and rises to his feet. "…I find pleasant discussion and debate far more appealing than someone would be.. balance? As you put it. Perhaps she is more balancing than you imagine. But as we have already both agreed.. the decision currently is in neither of our hands. But it is a suggestion I will make wholeheartedly - and if you oppose it, while disappointed, I will not love you less, as you are my blood." he says quietly, firmly after paying for the meal and leaving a small extra for Vesper. "We will table further discussion of this until after we meet with the Hortons as families and find out which of us is correct." And with that, he's heading towards the door.