ravenswrath | (no subject)

He blinks in alarm at the casual listing of such vicious powers.

"Well, you could certainly fuck someone up pretty easily with all that," he comments instead, needing a moment to process it all. "You don't have most of that now, do you? Or you'd have done a lot more than just snap people's necks when you got here."

Vicious powers which, he knows, could have been utilized in a much different way. He could have evolved them much differently. He could have invested his time and energy into - others.

But these were quick. Efficient. And Corvo didn't have time for niceties.

"I can teleport, use the wind, and control animals. Here, in this port, I can summon them at will, so that seems to be a Barge limitation, not an Admiral one."

He stares at the mark on his hand.

His eyes track it too, an eyebrow raising slightly. "Your god marked you, for all that?"

"That's right."

He clenches his fist and lets it fall so he can pick up the grass and pull it apart again.

"He wanted to help me, so he gave me those powers and taught me to use them, yanking me into the Void for it."

"You must've needed some pretty bad help in order to make a deal with a god," he comments wryly. Not judging him, but aware of how that looks. "'specially one who offers those as powers."

And Corvo laughs. It's a bitter, angry sound.

"There was no deal. I went to sleep, woke up in his Void, and he marked me with his powers. I didn't give him anything except the entertainment he apparently needed."

Richter's face softens a bit, but it's not just sympathy; it's understanding, the weight of something so heavy being burdened on you without as much as a by your fucking leave.

"Do you want to keep it? The mark, I mean. We could probably ask the Admiral to get rid of it, if you wanted."

"No," he says. "The powers are useful and the mark is - well, I can't very well not have it when I go back, hm? It would only show that I had some other god interfering in my life. And at least I know the Outsider."

"D'you want your powers back, then? By the sounds of it the Admiral might block some of them anyway-" because gurl that disintegrating bodies one is a lot "-but we can still get most of them, I think."

Another strange question that Corvo hasn't considered, but this one has an almost immediate answer.

"Yes. At full strength, preferably." They've become a part of him by this point, he reasons. Like the weapons, like his clothes. He doesn't feel complete without them.

"I had some of his charms when I came here, too. They don't work, but I gave them up anyway."

"Alright. I'll let the Admiral know when he's not busy."

Easy, just like that.

"Wait, so did you actually need help with something, or did the Outsider just go 'afternoon, squire, here's a knife and some magic bullshit, go have fun'?"

He shrugs. "Hm. It made things significantly less difficult." He tries to think back to all of the little errands he ran, to the missions he did, and he laughs.

"Well, I needed the teleport in the Flooded District. But - other than that, I'm sure it would have been possible. And I don't know if the Outsider can see the future, or just what the probabilities were."

"That doesn't actually answer my question," he points out. He hasn't had a chance to read his file yet, what with the ship being off-limits. "What were you doing before the Outsider decided it was worth benefacting you?"

He stares intently at the grass. "A very long story. I had just escaped from Coldridge. The prison. The Loyalists brought me to The Hounds Pits Pub, where they had their base. They told me that they would help me bring the rightful Empress to power, but I had to find her. I went upstairs to sleep." He gestures out to him.

He gets a curious frown. "And did you get a say in any of that shit, either? Seems like you're being yanked around the place by pretty much everyone and their fucking ponies."

"They had a plan to restore Emily to the throne. To find the person who had killed Empress Jessamine. What other choice did I have?"

He would be dead by the executioner's hand if not for them.

He tilts his head a little with his shrug. "I suppose that depends on what the Empress meant to you. You're not a royalist, are you?" It's a dry tone, a raised eyebrow. "Only if you are, you have to tell me now, or my sister's going to kill me."

He shoots the boy a dark look. "I'm no anarchist. The Emprire thrived under Empress Kaldwin. And it will do so again under Emily."

He tamps down on the white hot anger in his chest, but he rips apart a blade of grass a little too forcefully.

"Technically I think we're called révolutionnaires," he replies evenly, slipping into French without a thought. He's watching Corvo without fear or bravado, just a solid, quiet confidence. "If you're so loyal, how'd you end up in prison? Normally they're pretty lenient about their own, unless you fuck up really hard." But then, Corvo doesn't actually strike him as moneyed, either.

"I was framed for the murder of the Empress," he says, jaw tight. "She was killed, her daughter kidnapped, and I was held back by another marked by the Outsider. The man who found me was the man who orchestrated the whole plot."

"Aaaand fuck the gods," he mumbles, frowning in sincere concern at the story. "Marking you just to pleasure himself watching you kill his last favourite toy."

Tiff lifts her head to look at them both, and Richter absently pats her head, settling her immediately. "Were you her guard, then? The Empress."

He huffs. "I was the Lord Protector."

It's a point of pride, no matter how much he doesn't want to think about it.

He cocks his head slightly. "The Emperor's? I'm not awfully familiar with that title."

"Empress," he corrects. "I served as a soldier for a few years, then the Duke sent me as a diplomatic gift to the Emperor. I served him for a year before he named me Lord Protector to his daughter. She became Empress. I was her personal guard, her courier, her - well, it doesn't matter. I failed. She was killed."

Well there's definitely something between him and the Empress he's not saying, and Richter's not naive, exactly - but he won't push it yet, either.

"Did you kill him? The man who killed her."