IP: 82.14.67.140
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 03:48:34 AM by thoth
To Thoth’s relief, Tristan latches onto his questions with great enthusiasm. All he has to do now is sit back and listen to what, in fairness, is a very good tale. Thoth may be awfully verbose, but he is equally inclined to listen for long periods of time, providing the subject is one which captures his interest (and most subjects do). He listens to Tristan now with obvious intent, and an excellent audience he makes, too: he gasps, stares wide-eyedly and giggles in all the right places. When Tristan mentions the guard caught up in the curtains, the appropriate look of sombreness is slightly marred by glint of mischievous guilt – the guilt of a person who has been in similar situations before and can sympathise completely. The prince’s question provokes some thought. Thoth has seen negative emotions from Arthur (mostly pity), but he’s not sure if he’s ever seen the king truly angry. In his mind he revisits the memories of when Arthur had tied him to the wall to prevent him from haring off to the Shady Labyrinth to rescue his captured mother… had he been truly angry then? No, not really; not in the way that Tristan is describing now. He, Thoth, had been the angry one. His sister had once told him that to the well-tempered parent, other people’s naughty children are not exasperating, merely entertaining. Thoth wonders briefly how much ‘entertainment’ well-tempered parents have derived from following his activities. “I know what you mean,” he reassures his friend, thinking. “My mum never really got that angry at me. She’d start to get angry and then I’d distract her and she’d go off on a different tangent. Joel gets angry sometimes when he’s around, but he usually just yells it all out.” He scratches his chin thoughtfully. “Nimueh doesn’t shout. She got really angry with me the other day when I brought a wild pony into the house, though.” The genuine casual tone more than the words themselves is what betrays Thoth’s complete lack of discipline. His father had always been terrified to attempt to discipline his ‘fragile’ son on the odd occasion when he’d actually been around, and his mother – bless her – had tried, but was simply never any good at it. Joel has always been a fairly good disciplinarian, but even he cannot manage Thoth when the latter is in a stubborn mood – which happens frequently enough. Joel is less intimidating now that Thoth has lived with him for so long, and he is also usually susceptible to the same distractions which had always worked so successfully on Aura. On the occasion when Nimueh tries to discipline him (which only happens now that Joel has been gone for months – previously she always just tattled on him to the carpenter instead of confronting him herself) it never goes well. Even when Thoth realises that he is in the wrong and Nimueh in the right, he will never back down and will continue to defy and insult her until her nerves fail. Since the end of the war and Joel’s disappearance, Thoth has more or less run amok. Only his keen intelligence and personal moral code prevent him from becoming a juvenile delinquent. He gets up and wanders over to the window before peering out across the castle grounds. “Do you want to go down to the stables?” He suggests brightly. If his lack of discipline weren’t apparent to Tristan before, it should be now. Thoth has already very obviously deduced Tristan’s punishment; that he should ignore it isn’t because he doesn’t care for his friend, but because he doesn’t understand the need to obey. He’s never adhered to any punishment in his life, and doesn’t fully appreciate the concept of it. As he gazes expectantly at his friend, the assumption that Tristan is cut from the same stone is all too clear. Of course, it is entirely possible that Tristan is as naturally rebellious as Thoth, as the latter believes; what he fails to comprehend is that when Tristan acts on that instinct, there is actually a consequence. thoth someday you'll walk tall with pride |
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