The Drow Queen of Glaley [Very NSFW]

[GamesMaster]

"Ah, I see, I see. My girl's got herself a Tiefling child, using our surefire method. You ever change your mind, you come on back to me." He chuckles, throwing back more of the Sake. "She's the best of the three, as far as children go."

[Varisia Primfana]

Varisia smiles politely, though internally she's frowning. Three? I thought... "I confess I had thought you only had the two daughters; it seems I owe an apology and perhaps a second gift," she remarks smoothly, mentally assessing what she can pair with a woven silk belt like she got the other two daughters. Perhaps-- no, not lingerie of any kind, that implies sexual interest to most cultures. Hmm. Gloves perhaps?

[GamesMaster]

"No, no, only two girls." Though my son might as well have been one. "No, the last one's a son. The boy's been no heap of trouble. Don't suppose you've room for one more in the deal, do you?" he jokes, a cruel smile playing across his face. He'd already asked her to take three slaves off his hands in exchange for some gold figurines she was trying to sell him in the letters they'd exchanged; she was hoping to inspect the slaves, but to be honest, she was dubious of their quality from the letters. 

[Varisia Primfana]

Varisa rolls her eyes, though she laughs with more (fake) warmth than mere politeness would require. "As I said, I'm out of the slave trade, Indou-san," she chides him. "If you'd like for me to broker their hiring outside of Toukami, I'd be overjoyed to do so but they'd have to be worth enough to justify buying out their contract atop their wages." She pauses then, head cocking to the side. "But I'm more curious about your implication there; you wish to... sell your son?" Even drow families would disapprove of merely selling a male child. Trading him for another male, be for fresh blood or a particular talent, sure, but merely for gold or coin? Has he no respect for the blood of his family?

[GamesMaster]

"Ah, yes, mischievous wench that you are, making me go to Jade Rose." He waves a hand again, clearly hoping she'll take offense to his taking his business to her once-rival and thus give up the game she's playing -- but no, she's honestly out of the business of slaves. "But if the price were right, why not? He's doing little else. He won't marry well, that's for sure. We don't need more mouths to feed."

[Varisia Primfana]

She keeps the polite smile in place but her eyes are flat and empty as she repeats 'wench' in a flat tone. Indou is no innocent, not even close, and he's worked with people who have eyes like that before. 

[GamesMaster]

"I mean it affectionately, of course," he says. "You outsiders are always so strange, what levels of formality you use among yourselves. Have I erred?"

[Varisia Primfana]

"I am the head of my household, young though it may be," Varisia says cooly, though she inclines her head slightly to show that she is willing to accept his justification. "So while I would not expect the deference you would show your own Lord or one of his counterparts..."

[GamesMaster]

"Ah, yes, you Alessians do that backwards," he comments, relaxing a hair and taking another sip from his drink. 

[Varisia Primfana]

"Showing respect to those that have earned respect instead of disrespect?" Varisia asks with sweet confusion.

[GamesMaster]

"Honoring those without any history as though they had proven themselves," he quips. "But I meant letting your females decide things. It's as strange to me as letting your lesser wife rule over the greater would be to you." 

[Varisia Primfana]

"I suppose," Varisia replies after a short moment, pushing aside the flare of rage with long practice. It's a strange thing really; him being male makes the flare come easier, but also makes it easier to strangle. What worth the opinion, even the insulting opinion, of a male? "My household may be new, but I rather think I've proven myself by nearly any standard worth measuring with. Regardless, I can... see your point of how different our cultures are, despite a great many surface similarities. And, to be fair, more than one or two deeper ones. The importance of family over all else, the admiration given to the qualities of decorum and honor... and less fundamental things like a disdain for music with shouting, arranged marriages, a preference for rice over wheat and a fondness for silk."

[GamesMaster]

"Family above all else," he agrees, "but everyone has to do their own part to uphold the family honor. Otherwise they're not family so much as a drain on resources."

[Varisia Primfana]

"Such as the son you mentioned, I gather?"

[GamesMaster]

"Not even really my boy -- his mother's favorite, the kid's been coddled to the point of uselessness. I need to find some use for him before it's too late."