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Sharpie

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  1. Sharpie
    Tiranês wasn't sure he wanted to think of his cousin with lots of women, though he supposed Azarion wasn't as young as he had been - it was getting easier to reconcile the image in front of him with the memory of the young boy Azarion was when he'd last seen his cousin. He had tried, over the years, to remember the good times with his family, but inevitably it had been spoilt by the insistent image seared into his memory of that very last time he'd seen Azarion. Which was why the Romans had made him watch, of course. It had given him a recurring nightmare for years. "How many women do you need?" he asked, focussing on the here and now flesh-and-blood person in front of him; his cousin alive and mostly well, save for the fact that half the conversation was in the traders' sign, which wasn't fantastic for holding this sort of conversation but had to do. It was helped by Azarion's expressive face - there was more than one reason he'd ended up here. Tiranês couldn't see him serving in a Roman's house for more than day without angering someone important because he couldn't keep his thoughts off his face. "You did well the other day - you must have been racing for a while already. You won't have any problems with the horses, anyway." The hardest part would be behaving; Azarion had never really been good at that - they'd be talking with each other now, if he was better at that, after all. @Chevi
  2. Sharpie
    "Well, technically, the Mausoleum is the Mausoleum Augustorum," Gaius pointed out. "There are a great many temples in Rome, and there's a large number of those that I haven't visited, either. But they give aediles a region or two of the city, so that you don't have every aedile overseeing every temple, only those in the regions they oversee. Otherwise you'd have everyone falling over themselves to guild the roof of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus and the Temple of Aesculapius on Tiber Island would end up with its roof falling in because it's not considered so important." Of course she probably hadn't realised that, and his tone wasn't a lecturing one by any means, rather a light-hearted one, sharing a joke. "The full cursus runs queastor, aedile, praetor, consul, though technically aedile isn't actually part of it - a former quaestor can become praetor without being an aedile, and there have been praetors who became aediles later. Of course, as a man gets higher and higher, there are fewer positions open - we only have two consuls but there are twenty praetors, for instance." He looked at her, wondering if she would like to become the wife of a politician. "And those who have held the rank of praetor or consul are then eligible to be provincial governors - Calpurnius Praetextatus was the governor of Raetia until last year, or the year before." Would she be happy to be the wife of the man governing some province somewhere? Possibly not, from what little he knew of her. @Sara
  3. Sharpie
    "I can stay for a little bit," Davus allowed. "Though I think your maid will worry about you, going off with someone you've only just met." And if her maid was going to be worried, he didn't want to think what Sosia's parents would think. He hoped he wouldn't find himself in trouble if her parents knew his master and told him about this excursion. He was very sure her parents wouldn't consider him a suitable friend for their daughter at all. "I'm sure you'll make more friends soon," he assured her, returning her smile with a shy one of his own. She was a nice friendly girl, he couldn't see how she wouldn't make friends soon, though Rome probably felt rather daunting. Surely she had family to take her places and gatherings, though, a father or brother or someone? @Atrice
  4. Sharpie
    Teutus thought for a moment and gave the price that he would sell raw ivory for; of course it would be more than that once carved into whatever because the craftsman would want to make money from it, too - skill was always worth money, after all. "If you want to buy any of it, I won't charge you that much, though," he said. He would still add a mark-up but it would be somewhat less; he would not take advantage of his friends or his relations. "I can offer you credit, too, if you want some and can't afford it outright." He would be fair, he was not going to gain a reputation for taking advantage of other people but nor would he gain a reputation for being taken advantage of, either. Though senators were more or less fair game; as a breed, they seemed to think that the more expensive something was, the better the quality and the more valuable it was. "Where are you working, at the moment?" he asked. He could probably teach his brother at least something of his business, which would be good if Wulfric wanted to return home to Germania because that would mean that Teutus would have someone there he could trade with for goods from that part of the world. @Atrice
  5. Sharpie
    "I think he will be. He knows horses - all my people do - so he's not going to find that bit hard. I should think the hard part would be being in a chariot rather than on the back of the horse, though we have wagons and things back at home. It's not the same thing at all, though, and he was very young when we taken." Azarion wasn't even that old now, of course. He had to consider her next question. "We were family, of course. But we're from different tribes - our mothers married chiefs from different tribes. Or rather, my mother was from his tribe, the Saii, originally, but it's a much smaller tribe than mine, and she married into my tribe, the Alani, because it's a much more powerful tribe, with different clans and chiefs." He thought she would understand about tribes and tribal alliances in a way that the Romans didn't. Jason had never heard that the Romans even had tribes properly except for voting or something, which was all wrong. "We saw each other at various times growing up, but I can't say we were very close, simply because of how we lived and everything." But that didn't matter, not really. They were family and that was a precious tie here - he suspected that he would have a strong connection with Azarion even if they weren't related by blood, just because they were both Sarmatian and had that shared history. @Atrice
  6. Sharpie
    Tiranês shook his head. "No. Oh, he knows I'm not Roman but he's never asked about my past or anything. You know what Romans are like; they think you can't think or feel anything and have about as much of a story as a table does." Which was maybe being a bit harsh on Tiberius, but he was young, just a bit older than Azarion, and had the characteristic arrogance of a Roman patrician especially when dealing with slaves. It wasn't as though the Romans were the only people who had slaves; even the Sarmatians did, but they didn't have so many, and the ones they did have were for the benefit of the community as a whole, not just for the privileged few. He found himself studying his younger cousin's face, committing it to memory as it was now. He still had that wild fierce look about him, though it was a bit tempered now (and apparently only a bit, he seemed every bit as sarcastic as he always had been, he just couldn't say the words any more - but his expression was as open and speaking as ever!). And that old ache he'd felt for so long, thinking that his cousin was dead and had died alone without anyone to care, was easing. He was sure that he'd wonder whether this was real, later. "Do you think your chief would let me see you again, if I could come?" he asked, refusing to believe that this would be the only time they could meet. @Chevi
  7. Sharpie
    "You, my brother, are an idealist." Maybe it was a good thing that Lucius didn't want a political career, but the cut-throats in the street were hardly likely to be any more amenable to him than the cut-throat politicians in the Senate. He studied the ruby depths of the wine in his cup for a moment. "If you come back to me after a week and you think you can do the job - I want you to take a realistic look and evaluate it properly, for what it is not what you want it to be - I will find an equestrian to adopt you into his family. And while I'm not a praetor, if you bring a case to the courts, I'll do my best to see the criminals don't bribe their way out." There was corruption up and down which was probably why the collegia ruled the roost in some parts of the city. "I just hope you don't regret this." @Chevi
  8. Sharpie
    Jason had accompanied his master across the river to a smaller circus than the massive structure below the Palatine. He wasn't interested in races the way the Romans organised them; seven laps around a marked-out track in a purpose-built circus. He was interested in them because of the horses, though he would by far have preferred to see races run pitting horses and riders against one another instead of teams of horses drawing a chariot behind them. Still, he was out of the palace and getting to watch something that involved horses, so he couldn't complain too much, even to himself within his own thoughts. As the gates opened and the first race began, he found himself leaning forward. Their were two chariots for each of the teams and one of the drivers for the Whites looked familiar. He couldn't be, though; the person he looked like was dead and had been for nearly a decade. It must be a trick of the light or something - and yet he avoided the Reds' near-collision with the turning-post with consummate skill that made Jason's heart ache with longing. Of course all those who were allowed to race had to be skilful or they would risk collisions and who knew what - there was going to be some risk anyway, just because of the nature of chariot racing. But that driver looked as if he would be a similar age to Jason's dead cousin, and the resemblance was remarkable. It was hard to be certain, of course, with the distance and the speed, and yet if it was Azarion...! He had no idea how he could find out whether it was him or not, and found himself clenching his fists, urging the youngster on, whether it was his cousin or just someone of a similar age and appearance. @Sarah @Chevi @Járnviðr @Atrice
  9. Sharpie
    So Wulfric knew about ivory - Teutus thought it must be even more expensive in Germania because that was so far from Afrvica where it originated. It was pricey even in Rome, due to distance and the skill it took to obtain it; it was not at all easy to kill an elephant. Apparently the beasts had armoured skin or something, and spears and arrows merely stung like a mosquito would sting a man. "Yes, I sell this. Some people want all of it, some want smaller more manageable pieces that they can work into jewellery or - whatever their commission is for. I've seen all sorts of things made from ivory - bangles, combs, ornaments, hair pins - sword hilts, of course. Even small statues and votive offerings, things like that." Some sort of business venture with Wulfric might well be beneficial to both of them; Teutus could get some of the more luxury goods to send north and in return he could receive amber, furs, wool maybe - did the Germans have good wool? They were bound to have all sorts of useful things, anyway. A business venture between them would hopefully see them both profit, and that couldn't be a bad thing. @Atrice
  10. Sharpie
    He'd made a mistake suggesting the Porticus Liviae, hadn't he. She would probably want to spend hours here, and her slave didn't know where she was (well, she did but the lady didn't know that!) and Davus had to get home at some point this afternoon if he wasn't going to get into trouble. He was probably cutting it fine as it was. "The gardens are nice - you might want to come back with your friends to go shopping," he said, wondering just how he had ended up looking after a girl who must be the most naive young lady in the entire Empire. Nobody was going to believe him at home if he told the simple truth - he could see the steward's incredulous expression now! And gods knew what the lady's father was going to say or do once he found out what had been going on, even though Davus had been extremely careful that nothing could happen to her. @Atrice
  11. Sharpie
    How in the world were men supposed to talk with women they didn't know? How were they supposed to form any sort of connection when their worlds and interests were so vastly different? If Ovinia wasn't interested solely in children and running a house, Gaius was drawing a total blank on what she might be interested in, other than music - and while he liked listening to musicians, he was hardly likely to pick up an instrument himself. "That doesn't sound odd at all," he assured her. "Isn't music supposed to invoke a mood or make you think of certain things, after all?" He gave her a reassuring smile as she continued speaking. "I will be thirty-six next year, and will run for aedile - they're the magistrate responsible for looking after the temples and public buildings and organising the games. Technically, I don't have to be an aedile to run for any of the other political offices, but it doesn't hurt." And maybe he might even rise to the consulship in time, as his former legate's friend had done. It was perfectly possible, anyway - if only his brother's strange habits and interests didn't end up harming his chances. @Sara
  12. Sharpie
    "Rome hasn't crossed the frontier there at least - well, not that I've heard, anyway," Jason said. They wouldn't understand a culture of herders and nomads, he was sure they wouldn't, and he didn't think the wildness of the steppe would be good for any other way of life. It certainly wouldn't be a good sort of land for agriculture. Well, the sort of agriculture the Romans practised, anyway - it was all wrong for things like vines and olives, probably. He would hate to see the vast wildness of it tamed the Roman way, and couldn't picture his people willingly taking to Roman ways. "I'm glad you've got friends here, and I'm sorry about your family." He knew exactly what that felt like, and thought that her home was probably a lot different than his was, now. Why couldn't the Romans leave things well enough alone! "I found my cousin a few months ago," he said. "I though he'd died, but he's here in Rome - he's a charioteer with the Whites." He found the gods' sense of humour interesting; the first time he had seen his cousin in eight years was while he was taking part in his first ever race for the Whites - or at least, that's what he'd understood from everything he'd heard. Azarion had done well for himself, all things considered, though Jason wished neither of them had had to go through all the horrors of the previous eight years. Those years had been especially hard on Azarion, of course. @Atrice
  13. Sharpie
    Teutus thrilled at hearing his mother call him by the pet name she'd used to use to him - another thing that spoke to the closeness they'd once had between them, a closeness he'd never had with his father. "Yes, a lot has changed, Mama," he said. So much had changed, in fact, that he wasn't quite sure where to start. One thing was very clear, though - his mother wasn't going to remain property for a moment longer than absolutely necessary. But right now, of course, she still was, and of course she had spent a great deal of her life (most of it?) as a slave. Which meant that right now, she would be following his lead with regards to how to behave, what to do, what to say. "You must have a lot of questions," he said, inviting her to ask them, to actually have a conversation with him that wasn't all one-sided. He had plans to make, but would include her in them because they involved her - he was not his father and refused to follow his father's example in how he treated his slaves. He was going to treat his own slaves the way he wished his father had dealt with him before his manumission, the way he saw other citizens treat their slaves. He might not be perfect, but he was going to do his best. And the fact his father was a good example of what not to do was something that probably wouldn't please Tertius in the least, and that brought a wry sort of smile to Teutus' face. "You don't have to wait for me if there's something you want to talk about," he added, for his mother's benefit. @Sarah
  14. Sharpie
    "I miss... I miss having a horizon," Jason admitted. Sometimes the longing for a horizon felt like a physical pain, though he was able to ignore it - had to. "Rome is just so... closed in on itself, with so many people living all on top of one another. I don't know how they can bear it." He could see the sky, at least, but couldn't get that full-circle horizon anywhere. He couldn't get a decent uninterrupted view to the horizon anywhere, even; there were houses and temples and baths and other buildings no matter what direction he looked in. He tilted his head to one side, considering her words. "I... would. I don't know if I could fit back into that world, now, but it's home in a way Rome isn't, and my family is there. Most of them, anyway." Would he go home, though? Especially now, after finding Azarion - he was the only family Azarion had here, the only other Sarmatian in Rome as far as he knew. He wasn't sure he could abandon his cousin like that, even if he was given the choice. Right now, though, it was a purely hypothetical thing and he was a slave and gong to wake up a slave tomorrow morning, and the day after and the day after that... and in the face of all that, it was easy to say that yes, he would go home again. "Do you have friends or family here that you would have to leave if you were able to return home tomorrow?" he asked, wondering what her decision would be if she had a similar choice to make in such a situation. @Atrice
  15. Sharpie
    Jason hastily set down the carving he'd been attempting as he heard his name called from elsewhere in the suite of rooms that belonged to Tiberius (or were set aside for his use, at least). It still seemed surreal that one person had a whole set of rooms that was bigger than the yurt shared by Jason's entire family back home. "Domine?" he said, coming into the room where his master had been reading. He stood with his hands folded and eyes lowered though he remained poised, watching his master in case there was some subtle indication or signal that he needed to be aware of. @Sarah
  16. Sharpie
    "Cinnia," he said, doing his best to pronounce it as she had, though he thought he had an easier time with her name than she had with his; there were sounds in Sarmatian that just didn't exist in Latin. Even a reasonable approximation would be more than he'd had in nearly a decade. "My homeland is the steppe. Ah." He'd resorted to the Sarmatian word because Latin didn't have the right vocabulary for this. "It's a... vast grassland plain. My people live in the western part of it, nearest the Romans and the Dacians - we trade with the Parthians to the south, too. It's good country for horses and cattle and other livestock, but the northern parts get very cold in winter, with a lot of snow, so we... we move with the seasons, further north in summer and further south in winter. We live in round tents, yurts, that we take with us. And we can all ride almost as soon as we can walk. We use bows for hunting - deer, mostly, though my first kill was a wolf one winter. I was helping to protect the herds." He indicated the wolf tattoo on his arm. "We use short bows because we shoot from horseback - I don't know if you've ever seen the sort of bow I mean. The Parthians use them, too, and some other people." He sketched the shape of a recurve bow on the bench between them. "Weren't the Amazons supposed to be famous archers? That's another thing that points to the original Amazons being Sarmatian, or something like it." @Atrice
  17. Sharpie
    "If I've heard right, I think the Amazons might have been my people or something - or at least, they came from the same place my people do. Stories and legends about people do change if they come from far enough away and you've never been there, after all." He gave her a sympathetic look. "It might not feel like much, being stuck here, but your people did win the battle. And that isn't easy, not against soldiers like the Romans. But you've won fights since - I heard about what happened, with the brigands that time." Caught out by a group prepared to fight, and when they had to protect the princess - he wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but Cynane had killed one of them, and the princess had come back not even hurt. It did feel a little strange to think that a member of the people he hated had been unhurt and to be happy about it, but well. Life was strange and people were just... people, at the end of the day. It wasn't the princess who'd decided to invade Sarmatia or Britannia, after all - and the Romans hadn't even invaded Sarmatia. "What - if you don't mind me asking - what was your name back home? I'm Tiranês, really." @Atrice
  18. Sharpie
    "It#s the not knowing that's the worst, isn't it?" Jason hated the not knowing, the uncertainty. It must be worse for Cynane because she had the not knowing when, as well. "You were taken in battle, then?" He hadn't really heard of any other people whose women fought alongside the men - it happened in Sarmatia, of course, partly because they fought on hoseback and women could be just as good as good on horseback, armed with a bow. They could be fierce on foot, too, but it was rare that a woman could hold her own against a man when they were both armed with a sword and shield. "Our women fight with us, too, but we're archers, on horseback - Sarmatians ride almost as soon as we can walk." That was one of the things he missed - galloping across the expanse of the plains, a good horse under him and his hair flying free in the wind. It was almost a physical ache, how much he missed that. @Atrice
  19. Sharpie
    "Oh - no, it wasn't my people, I wasn't clear enough," Jason said. "The Romans did it, in retaliation for one of the other tribes crossing the river into Roman territory." He shrugged. "I was the son of a chief - or rather, a son of a chief, I suppose that made me valuable enough to keep, though whether anyone knows where I am now is in the lap of the gods." If he had any consolation in the whole business, it was that as the body slave of an imperial prince, they could hardly do any worse to him now. The worst thing had been knowing that Azarion was dead, the second worst was knowing that his family thought he was dead, though he was fairly sure the rest of his family was still alive, living the old ways free on the steppe. "Tiberius is about the only decent Roman I've met," he said. "It's hard hating a whole people when you get to know them a bit." Maybe the lower class Romans were nicer, but he was pretty sheltered here in the Palace and hadn't met any. All the upper class Romans he'd come across treated him as if he was literal furniture that moved to do things when they told him to. @Atrice
  20. Sharpie
    "No, I wasn't." He set the leatherwork aside and rested the heel of his foot on the edge of the bench to clasp his hands around his knee. "I was a warrior among my people, and a son of the chief." He paused for a moment, judging the time of day and position of the sun in the sky before indicating a specific direction. "My people live a long way to the north and east of here, out in the vast plains beyond the edge of the empire. We're riders and nomads, and there were raids into Roman territory so they demanded hostages. I was one of them, living there for a year or so until one of the other tribes encroached too far into Roman territory and killed some of the other hostages and sold the rest of us as slaves. I don't know why they didn't kill me along with the others." He hated Rome and everything about it - it was too loud, too dirty, too many people, too closed in... Tiberius was about the only Roman he could tolerate, and that was more to do with the sort of person he was. He had a shrewd idea that Tiberius would not have done to Azarion what the bastards did. @Atrice
  21. Sharpie
    "Oh, it's good," he said in confirmation, and noticed her smile. It made her look a lot less fierce, which was probably why he hadn't seen her smile before. Wasn't she here mostly to look fierce? He shrugged. "I've been here about three years now, but I've been a slave for eight years." Eight years... half a lifetime since he'd seen any of his closer family. He wasn't going to think about that, and he had found Azarion, so he wasn't quite as alone here in Rome as he had been six months ago. "How long have you been here?" he asked. He felt an affinity with this woman he'd barely met - hadn't she been made a prisoner of the Romans in a similar way to him, even if she came from a very different part of the world. @Atrice
  22. Sharpie
    "He is..." Jason rubbed at his neck where the inked falcon flew. "He's very... thoughtful. I mean, he thinks a lot. He's not hasty like some people." He didn't fly into a temper at the least little thing and lash out at the nearest slave to him, as some people had. Jason had had hits and slaps enough for three lifetimes before he'd come here, or it felt like it. He took up his tools again, to skive the edges of the leather - he'd basically made a new belt because the leather of the old one was so worn, yet the metalwork had been perfectly sound. Whoever had made the previous belt had used horribly inferior leather for it, in Jason's opinion. "How long have you been with Claudia - if you don't mind me asking," he said after a moment. It was nice to talk, but if she would rather not, silence was nice, too. @Atrice
  23. Sharpie
    "I hope you don't mind me being here." Her Latin was as accented as his own, although in a different way. "Not at all. Would you like to sit down?" He made a space for her on the bench where he was sitting, clearing his tools to make room. "You're the princess' bodyguard, aren't you? Cynane?" She wasn't the princess' body slave - he'd seen her around several times and knew her as Volusa, a quiet girl who'd always been a Palace slave, unlike himself. And apparently unlike Cynane, who was very striking in her masculine tunic and braccae, with her hair in braids. It wasn't the same style as the clothes he'd worn himself as a warrior but it wasn't precisely Roman, either - even female slaves generally wore long tunics down to their ankles, maybe with some sort of over-tunic, or a shawl tied round the hips or something. Her braided hairstyle was very reminiscent of the way he'd worn his own hair when he'd still been free. He wondered if the braids had the same significance among her people as they did among his, or if she just found it convenient. @Atrice
  24. Sharpie
    It was the month the Romans called October, which mean that the city was cooler than it had been, though it was far from being winter - not that Rome had winters like those Jason remembered from his childhood, that forced his people to move for better pasture and when the steppe was covered in snow that meant they were confined far more to the camp. He was in the garden today, the small garden near his master's quarters. Close enough to be to hand if he was needed, far enough away that he could feel he wasn't on a leash, or at least that the leash wasn't as short and tight as usual. Today, he was repairing a belt. Technically, he didn't have to, but it was something he wanted to do, and it was a skill he had, one among many. He'd had so many skills and things taken away he was not about to hand this to someone else to do when he could do it himself. He looked up after a moment to find that he wasn't alone any more. He had been joined by his master's sister's bodyguard, a tall blonde slave called Cynane, who he hadn't really spoken to very much. He wasn't sure if she was sizing him up or merely watching out of curiosity, and offered a smile. "Good afternoon." @Atrice
  25. Sharpie
    There was that enthusiasm again. Why he couldn't have had that when thinking about a political career - which would have served a similar purpose within the greater reach of the Empire - he didn't know. "And how frustrated will you be if things within the vigiles don't change, if people are too possessive of their own territory at the detriment of others and perhaps even of the city as a whole?" he asked. He didn't want to dampen his brother's enthusiasm - well, yes, he did, but not in a mean way. He just wanted Lucius to face the realism of what he was considering, without the rosy view of things that he had now. Why was he going along with this insane idea, that would see Lucius leave the family? He answered his own question: Because it was the first time he'd really seen Lucius this serious about anything, he couldn't continue the way he had been going and he was growing increasingly frustrated by the limitations imposed by his rank as a senator. Anyway, equestrians could do almost as much as patricians. Gaius Maecenas had remained an equestrian, eschewing a career in the Senate, and was renowned as a patron of the arts and a close friend of the Emperor Augustus'. It was not a disgraceful position in society. He could still feel the weight of censure that was no doubt to descend on his head for allowing his brother to pursue this particular course. Well, none of those judgemental people had to put up with Lucius' shenanigans over the past several months. Years. "And what if you reach your desired goal and people still don't pay attention and make the changes you want to see?" he asked. Did Lucius have the drive necessary to deal with that? @Chevi
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