it's a bard! it's a plane!

[cozen]

PLAYER
Name: mj
Contact + Notes: circuitry or mj#9265 on discord
Anything We Should Know: hopefully by now you already know it
Favorite GIF:



CHARACTER
Name: "Édouard" "Almary" (Bastien) (except that's also not his real name)
Info Page/App: Click
Who They Are: He says he's a printer from Val Royeaux, joining the Inquisition in the wake of the Battle of Ghislain to do what he can to assist with diplomacy, and he's only lying by omission! He is that thing. But he also used to be a bard in the Orlesian spy-and-assassin tradition. Or a con artist, if you want to be rude about it.
Where They've Been: Almost entirely only Orlais. He grew up in Val Royeaux, then traveled around a lot from his mid-teens onwards, but he rarely crossed the border.
What They Want: Have you seen what those bastards are doing to his country. Kill them please.
Plot & CR Desires:

For the immediate future he's going to be sticking around the Gallows and helping with propaganda efforts, maybe writing some exaggerated profiles and accounts of heroism if anyone wants to have their lives colorfully distorted and sold to high society to encourage support. He might misspell their names. Sorry.

I'm 100% here for pre-established CR, and he could have easily encountered/fought/conned/kissed/etc. people who have been in Orlais in the last 20 years, with the caveat that I'd like to keep the number of people who immediately know he's lying about who he is to a plausible minimum. He has a mustache now, so it's totally reasonable for people who knew him back then not to recognize him.

You can play with his printing press if you're nice.

Anything Else: MUS. TACHE.

Comments

[bouchonne]

SLAMS IN HERE WITH EXCITEMENT (and a desire for pre-established cr)

[cozen]

WELCOME TO THE JAM

And yes please absolutely. Do you have specific dreams. If not consider:

- Previous opponents because Byerly needed documents or something that Bastien (& Friends, he worked with some people) were also after.
- Previous cooperation because Bastien & Friends were just in it for the money anyway and could easily have been pointed in a Ferelden-beneficial direction.
- Wait there's stuff happening on plurk now!!!

Also actual professional spies are exempt from being fooled by the mustache.

[bouchonne]

YES stuff happening on Plurk!! Okay so -- Byerly spent a few years in Orlais when he was Young and Broke and Not-Yet-A-Spy and trying to get away from his bad reputation back home. (That would have been about 10 years ago.) He partied hard and mooched off of friends who would keep him fed and clothed and housed and played the violin and gambled for money. Maybe back then they could have been friends? Maybe Bastien could have taught Byerly some of his con artist skills?? Maybe Byerly can trace some of his current spy skills back to his charmingly mustachioed old friend

PS good facial hair choice, all handsome louches have mustaches

[cozen]

Heyyyyyyyyy perfect!!

I’m still working on nailing down precise details for that period and also dragging K2 by the ankle into playing one of his old partners so WAVES HANDS VAGUELY, but that probably would have been around the time he’d started actually doing pretty well for himself but disguising how well by hiding money under the floor or whatever and still swanning between working fancy places and hanging out in less fancy ones. And he was in sssssome kind of quintet or quartet (exact type depending on what K2’s character played, if my ankle dragging is successful, but Bastien played the cello back then) for the actual bard component of Orlesian barding so they totes could have bonded over music and segued into light well-dressed crime.

Except he wouldn’t have had a mustache then. It’s part of his Respectable Merchant Class Disguise™. But if Byerly had one way back maybe he’s copying him.... and general Orlesian fashion trends, with the mustache masks and all, but especially Byerly.

[bouchonne]

Actually Byerly's mustache is new too
So clearly their first thread needs to be meeting face-to-face and congratulating one another enthusiastically on their mutual excellent sartorial choices re: facial hair

But this is so perfect!! I have Byerly primarily playing the violin, so he definitely could have played with/busked with Bastien back in the day (in between the two+ man scams and three-card monte and possibly also literally breaking into people's homes to burglarize them because Byerly definitely burglarized a few houses back in the day when he got real desperate from his broke-ness).

[cozen]

STAMPS APPROVED

[coquettish_trees]

oops I went through unofficial channels

[chinhands]

[cozen]

How DAAAAAAAAAaaaaaare you.

[coquettish_trees]

Rules are for the POOOOOooooors!

(Parties/other yes though? she’s distracted very bad right now and will probably not recognize him. Or even go to a place he is.)

[cozen]

I think yes!! Some parties.

[coquettish_trees]

that's a rockin' house party if we have a violinist a cellist a pianist and probably other musicians

[ebeje]

GIVE ME CR WITH MAX please. Maybe even pre-established CR??? If it seems useful as a hook.

Max hasn't been in Orlais for 10-15 years so she could easily be fooled by the moustache OR may genuinely not have known his name at the time. She would've been a scrappy youth working in her father's household and pretty cutthroat about maneuvering her way the heck out of there, they could've traded favors or thrown the other under a bus or something else?? Or we could start fresh, I'm easy.

[cozen]

Bangs fists on table.

Yes.

Fifteen years ago he would have been a relatively baby bard and still learning so if you’d like her to have taken advantage of a misstep and so in that is totally doable, but if you’d prefer something more friendly that is also totally doable. weighs hands.

[sarcophage]

Hello, art pal, let's be art pals. Eventually.

[cozen]

As long as it doesn’t get gross.

[sarcophage]

Define gross.

[cozen]

[sarcophage]

Thanks, Siri

now play "Complainte de la Butte" by Rufus Wainwright