Goods and Services
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
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#15

The last person Bastien had ever expected to criticise his Church was this small girl, her words about his choices sharp and cutting. For a moment anger rose up in his chest, an old reaction to people trying to stamp down on what he considered perfectly acceptable expression - but he swallowed it. She was not criticising his actions, after all, just his reasoning. Which he would be the first to admit was flimsy.

Not what he was going to admit it here. With a casual shrug, forcing a smile back over his slightly shocked expression, he replied: "You do not understand the power of transcendental beauty. It is not just something being 'pretty'....but you are right. I have no way to know if I what I am doing is correct. But where I am from...that was how everyone worshipped. With no feedback, no correspondence. Simply trying to do what they could. Which is what I am doing."

He put a hand to his chin, quietly thinking for a moment before he continued. "If Safrin wants calm, normal, boring churches...she will let me know, and I will take my work elsewhere. But she asked me to help her, to get people knowing her name...and this is a method that will surely work. It is the only method I have. I have never been a typical preacher."


BASTIEN
This tiresome desire to shock and amaze

Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Phoebe Steadman
the Nightingale
Midwife

Age: 26 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 32 - Dext: 46 - Endr: 41 - Luck: 41 - Int:
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#16
Trigger Warning 
Phoebe’s expression totally fell now. The more this very handsome man said, the more she decided he was actually very ugly. Ugly enough that she no longer wished to have a drink. It was impolite. It meant she would have to be a bit argumentative – which she hated – but frankly, she didn’t know how anyone could stand this man long enough to sleep with him. Unless he kept his mouth shut – and then how was it he was going to spread the word of Safrin? ”I see. I think I understand what you are doing quite clearly.” she said, her voice a little clipped. It sounded unnatural on her, as she wasn’t comfortable with the tone. Anger did not come easily or quickly to the young woman, but Bastien had struck a nerve. She served women as a midwife. She would love to hear of a powerful goddess being worshipped for all she was. Instead, it seemed the one goddess she would hear about was being treated with the same reverence of a bunch of drunks sharing stories of their conquests.

The young midwife stopped in her tracks and glanced up at him, a frown curving her lips. ”You’re using this goddess Safrin as a cover to bed people. ‘Come, lay with me and I will tell you of a goddess I know nothing of except for her beauty.’” She said bluntly. ”You aren’t actually devoted to her. You said it yourself: if she doesn’t like your methods you will find a new deity to serve. That isn’t devotion but a bed of lies you lay in. You don’t spread her name, you twist it to fit your means. I do not know this goddess, I have not met her nor heard of her before, but I don’t think it is right for you to sully her name just so you can get laid. I bet there is a lot more to her than transcendental beauty, and here you are, making her into naught but a shallow reflection of what a goddess is.” Phoebe had seen enough men like this while apprenticing as a midwife. Men who saw their wives as nothing more than a means from which to get sexual gratification. All she could see were memories of women in tears, begging for ways to keep their husbands pleased or they would find someone else, or hurt them, or worse.

That was all Bastien was doing, in the name of a goddess no less. She wasn’t even sure Frey would have agreed with that method. Were those who followed Bastien really doing so willingly if they thought it was about worship but was actually just a trick to get them to sleep with him? She didn’t think so.

Phoebe turned on her heel then. ”I think I will skip that drink. Thank you, though. If you ever have something substantive to say about your goddess, something that would bring her glory rather than the plot to your wet dreams, I would be interested to hear it.” That was all she would say further on the matter. If he had known that was how this goddess wanted to be worshipped, then fine. But he didn’t. This was selfishness and on the verge of assault of his followers and slander of a deity of a higher nature; who had asked him to spread her name not use it to bang his way across the settlement. It was wrong.

Unless Bastien physically stopped her, she was going to head back to her shop.
Phoebe
In a gentle way, you can shake the world
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
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#17

Bastien stood quietly and listened to all of Phoebe's long rant, his eyes growing wide and his eyebrows raising as he did. The anger from before came back in full force as she continued to misinterpret his motivations and intentions, seemed determined to get the absolute worst impression of him from his words.

He was shocked mute until she turned on her heels, at which point he stepped forward and began to speak, his voice louder than he meant.

"Would you give such an uncharitable interpretation and no chance to defend myself?" He began, surprised with the passion (and undercurrent of something whinier, something hurt and small) in his voice. "You hardly listen to anything I have to say then assume me a cad! I have not tricked anyone. I have not ever considered Safrin, nor anyone, simply a sexual being and nothing more. You hardly know me, piccolo fiore, to make such assumptions. I don't know about you but we are all looking for a purpose here, and if I can find it helping a Goddess I admire, it is a start."

He had less defense for his methods of worship, but they certainly weren't motivated by Safrin's gender. He would just as willingly give himself to a male God, consider him as beautiful. "You assume I do this for Safrin for she is a woman. Tell me, Phoebe, do you know that men can love other men? I do. I would give the gifts of love and sexuality to a God of any gender and believe me, they are gifts. Perhaps it is just 'getting laid' to you. To me, it is not. To me, it is something beautiful and for anyone."

Piece said, he stayed still with his hands bunched into fists at his sides, frustrated at how quickly he had been painted so poorly. "If you make such quick negative ideas in your head of everyone you meet, you will not make many friends."


BASTIEN
This tiresome desire to shock and amaze

Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Phoebe Steadman
the Nightingale
Midwife

Age: 26 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 32 - Dext: 46 - Endr: 41 - Luck: 41 - Int:
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#18
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
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
Played by: lancydulac Offline
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Posts: 1,399 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#19

Bastien was not in a good mood now, and his only response was to throw his hands up. "When did I ever say anything about unwilling lovers? Anyone who comes to me is to do so of their own volition. I am not some predator lurking in the shadows." The implication that he would take anyone without clear consent repulsed him. Even when he had had his drunken orgies at the Lost and Found Refuge if he had detected any unwillingness in a participant he would have pulled them out and made sure they were alright.

"Gesù Cristo, you are proving to be as smug and sanctimonious as that bastardo pope! How about you let me, the man who actually met her, worry about how to worship my Goddess? And you did not even wait to hear everything about my organisation. If it were just sex I would open a brothel. Did you not notice the art? The words? Perhaps you are too small minded to even see such things."

He knew at this point he was letting his anger and frustration from other things bleed into this, was getting over the top (people were staring at his raised voice at this younger girl). Bastien sighed and closed his eyes, ran a hand through his hair.

"...I think it best if we leave this. Clearly, you don't understand what I'm trying to do here."


BASTIEN
This tiresome desire to shock and amaze

Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Phoebe Steadman
the Nightingale
Midwife

Age: 26 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 32 - Dext: 46 - Endr: 41 - Luck: 41 - Int:
PIM - Mythical - Dragon (Electricity) BRANBAST - Mythical - Sear Cat (Speech)
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#20
”Clearly you don’t understand what I am trying to do here.”

Ooh boy, Phoebe had never encountered a person in her life that made her so angry. ”Would you stop insinuating that I am stupid or a child? You’re the one who cannot handle the fact that your logic isn’t sound and on the verge of being considerable as assault.” she snapped at him, her brows furrowing. Yep. The anger was back and overruling everything even though he was yelling at her. Rollercoaster of emotions, this one.

”How can you claim that you are serving your goddess? You don’t even know what she wants! All you can say about her is that she is pretty! So then you have this church where you say in order to serve the goddess we are all going to have sex with each other. That’s manipulative! People will think it is what Safrin asked of you but she didn’t! In fact, you don’t know because you didn’t ask! Deities have brains, Bastien! There are things they like and dislike! You are pretending you know how to worship her but all you’re doing is using it as an excuse to convince people to sleep with you! You want to have a bunch of sex for yourself, not for any god or goddess so just leave it at that! Don’t pretend you are doing this for anyone but yourself.” Phoebe’s cheeks had flushed and her breathe short as she came to the end of her rant. Oh he made her so angry! The fact that he could not understand or see the issue with his construct was infuriating. He wasn’t serving a goddess he was serving himself.

”And if your logic is sound, if it is not as I have described it to be it is not my fault that the way you describe your church sounds like the cover-up for your personal brothel. It’s your fault it sounds like that.”
Phoebe
In a gentle way, you can shake the world
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
Played by: lancydulac Offline
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Posts: 1,399 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#21

"Assault? Assault!?" As much as he didn't want to be known as the man who went around yelling at teenage girls, Bastien was struggling to not scream in frustration.

As she continued speaking none of it got better, and Bastien found the willingness to argue inside of him snap. She was wrong, wrong in a way that he felt in his very soul, but he suddenly knew that it was extremely unlikely he would get her to see his side. No matter how much passion he put into his argument, she had decided he was a creep.

It seemed his words about art had been completely ignored, his offhand comment about finding another deity made into an absolute truth - the way this girl argued was infinitely annoying to him, far from the vague philosophies he usually dealt in which he could bend to his whim with a good turn of phrase.

"Have it your way, buona donna pura. Live your life offended by pleasure to the point you do not listen to he who could give it to you. I bet whenever someone does find himself between your legs he will find only a cloud of dust." After an added spreading of his hands and a pah sound effect, Bastien turned on his heels and began to storm back up towards his church, wanting nothing more than to lick his wounds with a drink and the invisible comfort of his Goddess.


BASTIEN
This tiresome desire to shock and amaze

Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days

Phoebe Steadman
the Nightingale
Midwife

Age: 26 | Height: 5'9" | Race: Demi-god | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Greatwood
Level: 5 - Strg: 32 - Dext: 46 - Endr: 41 - Luck: 41 - Int:
PIM - Mythical - Dragon (Electricity) BRANBAST - Mythical - Sear Cat (Speech)
Played by: Grant Offline
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Posts: 3,062 | Total: 5,479
MP: 1825
#22
Phoebe couldn't control the confused look on her face. Buona donowho? Whatever it was she was pretty sure she didn't like the sound of it. Or anything else he said. Her delicate hands balled into fists. Ooh she was so angry! He was such a...such a...asshole!

She immediately chastised herself internally for saying that even in her head.

"Do you have cotton in your ears or are you just that stupid you...you...stupid-head!" she said angrily even as he started to walk away. "At least I am speaking a language you understand rather than whatever that stupid lamguage is coming out of your...stupid...face hole!!" Her voice had gone up in pitch the angrier she got. Also...insults...not her strong suit either obviously.

Oh, he thought he could walk away huh? Nope. Now she was on a roll and it was...a little exhilarating! Phoebe marched behind him, right on his tail, which meant the door slammed in her face. She harrumphed and banged her fist on his door as hard as she could. "And for the record, Dumb-Dumb, I am not offended by pleasure, I am offended by manipulative idiots like you!!" she shouted so the sound would carry through the door jam for him to hear. At this point she was so angry tears were in her eyes and her limbs all shook.

Satisfied she got as much of her point across, or as much of it as she could, she turned to leave. And by leave the narrator means stomp away like the mature young woman she was. At any rate, Phoebe had definitely found passion...not directed the right way but that was progress. She hoped Remi had alcohol because she needed it and his sane head to talk her down.
Phoebe
In a gentle way, you can shake the world
Bastien De Rosieres
the Dionysian
Ambassador for the Hollowed Grounds / Artist

Age: 41 | Height: 6' 2" | Race: Ascended | Nationality: Outlander | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 5 - Strg: 20 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 10 - Int:
PITTORE - Mythical - Gremlin (Disappearance)
Played by: lancydulac Offline
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Posts: 1,399 | Total: 8,707
MP: 0
#23

Bastien had just shut the door behind him with a satisfying thunk when he heard Phoebe's voice come through it - apparently she was not as meek as she had seemed at first, and had come for more fight. Although she wasn't exactly the most scathing critic, her insults childish enough that Bastien didn't have it in him to open the door and argue with her again.

As soon as she was done yelling he pointedly locked the door, knowing it would make an audible noise outside. A dismissal without his voice needed, but he couldn't resist a yell of: "Goodbye, piccola ragazza!" His accent and use of italian words always increased when he was incensed over something, but the sound of his own words surprised him.

With a sigh, Bastien took a bottle from the crate in the back of the room and sat with it, staring up at a painting of Safrin. As much as he did consider Phoebe a stupid little girl, her words had struck a slight nerve. Was he doing the right thing here? He knew the concerns about 'unwilling' participants were groundless, but he truthfully had no idea if Safrin would like his work here. He was fulfilling her quest, just....in his own way.

He rubbed his thumb over the pendant. "Ah, Goddess. I wish you could give me a sign. Let this disciple know if he is close to achieving your dreams. Or if that girl was a messenger from you, a sign of your displeasure. I feel lost, and here I find home - others will too, and they will know it is in your name. I thought that a beautiful way to accomplish your desires..."


BASTIEN
This tiresome desire to shock and amaze

Perhaps I’ll grow out of it one of these days



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