Completed Take It on the Run

Had he still been holding up his beer, he'd have choked in it. Out of all the things he expected - or could reasonably expect - to hear, a kid was, by far and wide, not what he'd anticipated.

He took each of Zael's words in, though taking some time to fully grasp their meaning.

- "And how is it that you're going to do that?" - He asked, brow raised. - "Traitors to the realm seldom live a plentiful life." - He leaned his head. - "Or a long one, for that matter." -
 
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Well, his good buddy Ivan left himself wide open for this one.

"If they actually wanted me dead, they'd send someone who could get the job done."

Zael's pinched smile looked like it was performing a colossal feat in keeping back a tide of mirth. Alright, add another item to the list of things Zael missed from the Academy: he didn't have a stable of other guys to do some ball-bustin' with anymore. He'd have to work on that, but damn if everyone in Gilram's troop wasn't so goddamn serious all the time.


Ivan Skender
 
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A chuckle escaped his lips, very much in spite of him, and - for a moment, at least - he seemed to forget where he was; that he was a trained killer of the Republic on the hunt for a wanted criminal, or that he was a traitor to that very same Republic, instead aiding said criminal. In that moment, he was just a kid; a teenager having a laugh with a friend.

- "Oh, don't flatter yourself Castomir." - He quipped, playing into the banter. - "The way you let yourself go, I'm afraid a light jog outside would be enough to do the trick." - ​
 
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"Aw fuck, is my gut hangin out again? Goddamn it, gimme a sec—"

Zael made a big show of pretending to tuck in a bruiser-sized belly, fiddling around his arming jacket and pants.

"There we go. This Elbionese pasta up here, I swear." Then, in all seriousness, he said, "Don't you want to continue the Skender line someday, Ivan? I mean, shit, stud like you might just end up doin it anyway, sprinklin a bunch of little Ivans from Annuakat to Alliria."



Ivan Skender
 
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Though his eye-roll and head-shaking could suggest otherwise, the smile stamped all over his face betrayed how he really felt about Zael's big belly display.

And as if that wasn't enough to drive the point home, the chuckle that escaped his lips at Zael's caricature of his potential bastards certainly did.

- "Out of duty, yes." - He said, his face settling down into a more serious expression. Ivan knew that having kids was a necessity - much more so than a joy - for him, obsessed as he was with family legacy. He was the last living member of the Skender clan, after all. If he didn't leave any offspring, the name would die with him.

- "But man, what the fuck would I even do with a kid?" - He shook his head again. - "And plus, do I really look like the nurturing, fatherly type to you?" - Maybe nurturing was not the most accurate word to describe his perception of fatherhood, given what he'd been through at the Academy, but it was not as if he was trying to emulate the Proctors' tenderness anyways.​
 
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- "Currently really is key there." - He assented, clearly going through the same reasoning as Zael had. Great minds did think alike. - "Do you think I want the Urahils as in-laws?" - He quipped, raising a brow in an amused expression. - "There are less painful ways to die." - Or to be nagged to death. Again, he really did adore Odessa's brother Leander Urahil, as the two had had a budding friendship growing up, but having Leander as brother-in-law? The prospect on its own was almost enough to dim whichever feelings he'd felt for Odessa.

He shook his head.

- "What about you? Any girl you've figured you want raise a kid with?" - For all their time together, Ivan really was not sure if Zael really had had a crush on any one girl during his time at the Academy. There was poison-eating Ebersol with the big rack, but his comrade's earlier indifference when he'd mentioned the girl really cast doubt on whether anything had ever happened there.

Plus, it was not as if Castomir couldn't do better.​
 
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Zael couldn't really say one thing or another about the Urahils, so he'd have to take Ivan's word on it. Sure, he'd met Oraya, and she wasn't so bad (heh, not being a Dreadlord probably helped), so he reckoned he could safely place her outside the category of Urahils keen to flay Ivan alive if he went two steps too far with Odessa.

Ivan turned the item of inquiry around him then, and Zael played it casually for this go-round.

"I'll figure it out," he said, a relaxed smile accompanying his answer. "I got time, cause I ain't gonna be dyin any time soon."

Zael sure as hell wasn't going to say any names, not even the name of that cute, spacey barmaid who came around the Flamingo every other day, and Zael barely even knew her outside of a few instances of getting a laugh out of her innocently aloof commentary. With Ivan currently straddling the line of allegiance, one foot with the Republic, one with the Rogues, he wasn't exactly the most trustworthy guy right now to be confiding stuff like this. Saying a name might just be to put the owner of said name in danger.

Ivan Skender
 
He rolled his eyes amusedly at Castomir's cockiness, knowing full well he would also make a similar comment, had their roles been switched.

- "Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that, and you'll end up dead faster than you know." - He flashed a sly grin at Zael, before getting up from his stool.

- "It was nice to see you, Castomir." - He said. - "Belly fat and all." -

He turned to face the rogue.

- "But I think its time for me to be off, before we draw even more attention to ourselves." - He waved the letter he'd carried for Zael in the air before he left though. - "You know how to find me if you want to." - He continued, referring to the enchanted paper Duncan used to infiltrate his messages into the Academy.

- "Just try not to get yourself killed before that happens." -

With that, he walked out.​
 
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