I got you a pig, so please stop being angry...

[Anonymous]

Doyle just gave Ruben a look of blissful ignorance and set the piglet down on the chair, where she promptly curled up, one leg sticking straight out.

"Anything else I can get for you sir?"

[Tally]

Ruben crossed his arms and only barely managed to stop himself from stomping his foot on the floor.  Doyle was mocking him, and amusing himself far too much over it.  It wasn't funny.

"Stop that."

[Anonymous]

"Yes s-" Doyle managed to stop himself in time, trying to compose his face, "No need ta get so upset. I was just funnin' with ya a bit."

The mage got so upset so easily. It was cute really. And a little intimidating when he actually got mad.

[Tally]

Ruben took a deep breath and forced himself to count to five slowly.  He occasionally—and only occasionally, only under especial duress—had a tendency to get shrill.  That would hardly convey the dignified indignation he felt right now.  "Are you done?  Good.  Where's the other one?"

[Anonymous]

"The other one? StarFire?" Doyle gave a small shrug, looking around, "Ain't seem him today much. Probably out somewhere. Why? Ya need somethin?"

Doyle had thought Ruben didn't like the boy much. He didn't get why, he was a nice enough kid, if a little off after years of being a slave.

[Tally]

"From that one?  No.  Let's hope he stays wherever he is.  He's so bothersome."  Had to pick and argument over every little thing.  Didn't at all know his place or care to keep his mouth shut when he ought.  Ruben wasn't even sure what he was still doing here.  Doyle was being taken advantage of and didn't seem to even notice.  That was where unquestioning compassion got you with people like StarFire.

Ruben chose some food to eat...carefully.  He looked with suspicion now upon just about everything in Doyle's pantries.  He chose some fruit today and even gave that a glance before taking.  Never knew what you'd encounter in this place.

[Anonymous]

"Aw, come on now, he ain't that bad." Doyle frowned, heading over to where Ruben was and snagging a slice of the bread he had made that morning and leaned his hip against the table, "He's had a rough time. I mean, the poor kid was a slave for years. Cut him a break. He's nice."

[Tally]

"He's a nuisance.  And he needs to learn when his opinion isn't needed or wanted."  Ruben tossed a couple of tomes onto the table and spread a chart out.  He used the books to hold down the corners.

"Nice?  Where do get that?  He's obnoxious.  He should have stayed a slave, it's where he belongs."

[Anonymous]

"Ruben!" Doyle's voice was icy, his expression angry, "Don't you ever say that again. No one ever deserves to be treated the way he was and even if ya don't like him, I wont have ya sayin things like that about him."

[Tally]

Ruben's head snapped up at the tone in Doyle's voice.  He'd never heard Doyle talk like that.  To get so passionate over some slave boy.  It didn't make sense.

No, it made perfect sense given Doyle's sentimentality.  He looked at Doyle, not coldly or challenging, but with dead-eyed weariness.  "He's just a slave.  He'll always be a slave, no matter where he goes.  He will always carry that around with him."

[Anonymous]

"Ruben. That is not okay. I'm serious. You need to knock it off now. He might have the scars from that, but that don't mean it defines him for the rest of his life. He can and will be more than that and I wont have ya talking like that."

Doyle set his jaw, arms crossing in front of him, "I'm serious."

[Tally]

Ruben stared at Doyle a few moments longer before shaking his head and grabbing a pen.  He looked down at the star chart, not at Doyle.  "I don't want to talk about him anyway," he muttered.

[Anonymous]

"Alright then." Doyle relaxed and moved closer, peering over Ruben's shoulder, "What's that your workin' on? What are all those dots?"

[Tally]

Ruben took a deep breath and let it out.  There was a lot more he could say about the other one.  Like how Doyle was wasting his time, how the boy would probably steal from him and how he would never make it in the world as a free person.

But it was true what he'd said.  StarFire was the last thing he wanted to talk about.

"It's a star chart mapping movement."  He pointed to a wavy line running through the middle of the chart. "That's the declination."

[Anonymous]

"The what?" Doyle could read stars in the sky just fine, but he didn't really know the terminology for it. He leaned closer, lightly brushing a hand along the chart, "So those are...stars? How does it work?"

[Tally]

"It's just a way of applying an angular distance onto the celestial sphere," he said.  But that part was boring for others.  The signs were the fun bit.  He tapped one of the constellations. "That's Scorpio.  That's mine."

He peered up at Doyle, smiling.  "I can tell your sign."

[Anonymous]

"Sign? What's that? Do you just pick a constellation you like?" Doyle studied the one Ruben had pointed out, studying it, figuring it out, "Oh, hey. I get it." He tapped one, "This is Cancer, right?"

[Tally]

"Right...the crab."  Doyle was observant.  The shapes of the constellations weren't always readily apparent.  Ruben should have expected that from him.  He'd have to be...clever in that way to do the work he did.  Noticing patterns and things.  It'd be useful to a fighter and a mercenary.

"You're born into your sign.  Everyone has one."

[Anonymous]

"Really? How do you know when your sign is?" Doyle kept looking over the charts, "I like finding the stars. This isn't quite like the sky though. I can't find them all."

[Tally]

"You can have a chart made to tell you."  Ruben drummed his fingers on the table and smiled.  "Or an astromancer can tell you."

He looked at the chart again.  He'd been looking at star charts so long he'd forgotten what it was like to see one for the first time.  "Well this shows the whole sky, not just the piece of it we can see in one moment."