Goods and Services

Bastien had been unlucky enough to see the very rare glimpse of Phoebe’s anger. He was also about to get the equally rare glimpse of just how flimsy that anger was. As his voice raised she visibly winced. Like a pin in a balloon her rage (if you could call her little outburst rage) deflated. It was why she had tried to get away so quickly. She had been upset. She acted on her upset. But now was the part she couldn’t handle – the other person acting on their upset. Phoebe was no fighter, and the raised voice and hint of hurt was all it took to take what little fight she had worked up out of her. The young blonde couldn’t meet his gaze, staring instead at the ground. Her arms trembled slightly as she held her basket snug to her side. She said nothing as he yelled at her, listening in silence, her anxiety flying to the heavens. But eventually she did have to speak. He had said his piece. Now she stood there in front of him, feeling fully out of her depth, with no one to help her. For a moment, tears threatened. Phoebe took a steadying breath and closed her eyes. Don’t cry, Phoebe. It is only okay to take the willing, and you only though you were defending the unwilling. she thought to herself, remembering that Frey had even declared that it would not engage with an unwilling partner. Besides, she wasn’t the only one to make incorrect assumptions this conversation. Steadied, she opened her eyes again, finally looking up at Bastien. “I apologize for the incorrect assumption, then. Your words simply painted a picture of a cad manipulating his flock and dishonoring a deity for personal gain and I couldn’t help the jump, cara.” she said, taking the phrase he had used earlier and repeating it to him, though the slight tremble of her voice might have taken away some of the power of it. Also she had no clue what cara meant but she was going to pretend she did. She fell silent again, unsure really what to say. Arguing was not her strong suit. Again she looked at the ground, her anxiety regaining its hold of her for a moment. ”I told Frey when they came to me last that I would tell people of their actual nature, so people would stop misinterpreting them: Frey has said they would not take the unwilling, and they are a deity of passion and desire. I will not apologize for being against what even they would not take.” she said quietly. She had truly thought he was twisting a situation to his advantage. ”But if it is as you say, that you do not do so…that your partners are willing…fine. Let Safrin be the judge of the righteousness of your actions in her name. Just consider that if you would be willing to forsake her simply because she did not approve of this method of worship, that perhaps you are not as devoted as you say…and that so long as you worship without knowing what they wish to be understood, you paint a false image of them.” Phoebe wouldn’t judge him for seeing out passion or sex – that was the exact task Frey had given her. But his logic still wasn’t sound. Just less assaulty. Frey didn’t seem to care for being painted as a deity of crazed mindless sex…if Bastien did not know what Safrin wanted, wasn’t he doing just that? Phoebe In a gentle way, you can shake the world