Dorian was hours away from departing and taking a drink with his brother at the Murphy's pub in Victoriana before he got onboard one of the company ships and headed off to Asia. He was packed and his things were already waiting onboard. Since Dinah had given birth to her son, Dorian had not spoken about anything much beyond the child, and remarking how strange it was. And suddenly. In truth he hadn't spoken terribly much at all. His plans to depart were likely as sudden seeming to his family, though he'd actually been thinking through his journey from the day after his twin had attacked him.
He sipped on whiskey just, since he knew he'd not be near to Dinah who hated the smell of the stuff. As he'd said a few times before, and with meaning beyond the obvious laden into the teasing tone, he remarked again, "You are an uncle."
Twisting his neck from side to side attempting to get the satisfying ‘pop!’ to happen, Drystan rolled his eyes and laughed holding his whiskey as well, lifting it up to his mouth as he replied, “Yes, as I have been informed. Thank you for the reminder. You are as well! Uncle Dorian. It’s got a ring to it!” He sipped the drink and placed the glass down on the little table between them. He shook his head and lifted his brows, the same look he’d had on his face since this all began, something that was somewhere between shock and pride and confusion.
“The Gods work in very mysterious ways. And that's a terrible way of saying that, because any fanatical religious fool will say that about whomever they worship, right? But us, our connection is so close. It's more magnificent than I have words for. They have given us all gifts and blessings, but this….It’s as if they are repaying her for her service. For her strength? Hell, I don’t know. I just know that kid is damn cute and I have no clue how to do anything with ..newborns? I’m preparing to learn everything I can. Library at the university will help.”
Dorian shook his head against the notion of Uncle Dorian, because it was too weird to imagine those words. Too strange to be that man. At least this far from the child. When with him, it came naturally--wanting to protect a helpless little creature from his twin's own body. Apart from him and Dinah, thinking about the thing from a more holistic standpoint, his misgivings were a little louder, but he was pressing against them. Even he had already figured out that it meant Roesler wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. It altered his plans, and put some of his dearest dreams further out of reach. He couldn't quite bring himself to feel comfortable reveling in bitterness when his siblings were so purely glad. So speaking to none of that tangle of things which he was trying to pretend didn't exist, he just agreed, "Holding him is so strange. Do you suppose our heads were so large on such little necks?" By now he'd been shown how one was supposed to cradle a newborn, and though he'd done it, he was still amazed by how small the kid was. How light. How loud he could be for all of that. After another head shake and a sip from his cup, he'd append, "I pity Mother if so."
Mid drink, he stopped to make sure that he didn't spurt the drink everywhere. He put the drink down and started wiping at his chin and the corners of his mouth, a big smile on his face. Once he’d swallowed it down he opened his mouth with a “aaaahhh” and a laugh added at the end, his eyes crinkled up at the thought of anything like that about Mother. His mind never so much as wandered near thinking about her giving birth or even having private parts. He waved his hand back and forth at his brother and leaned back craning his head back and laughed deeply in his lungs. “Hooo hoo Dorioan my fucking gods, please for all the love of what we hold dearest, never talk about Mother’s… birthing..ahhh..ghad…” He wiped his hand over his mouth to his chin as if to physically wipe the words out and away form himself. “I don’t want to think about him coming out of poor Dinah either! She gestated a whole human baby in what, a matter of a handful of hours and then ..poof! Welcome to the family little man.” He waved his hands around and then was left sticking his fingers through his hair to get it out of his face and sigh deeply.
Dorian laughed when his brother did, the sound and look of Drystan's hilarity lightened his heart. He mirrored his brother in swiping some hair back out of his face, though he was getting too far from his last haircut and the hair was already springing back to where it had been before he moved it. He'd shaken his head against the thought of bodily going through what his twin had. Such an intense experience, with so little time to get accustomed to the idea. He'd reach his cup toward his brother's and clink it, remarking, "To Dinah and our nephew."
He took a pull from his cup, then after setting the glass down, poured himself a new one from the bottle he'd bought from the barkeep, He'd reach the bottle over to top Drystan off too, going on, and earnestly, saying what didn't need to be said, "I know you will look after them." Only it did need to be brought up, because as his eyes-widened and bored into his brother's for a few moments and mind which pushed forth a flickering of worry amid the joviality said, but his mouth did not, their sister had not been particularly stable of late.
Glasses clinked and Drystan’s was lifted to his mouth to take a good slug of it, then held it out for Dorian to top him up again. “To our darling sister, and our surprising Nephew!” He had another sip and set the glass down to start reaching into his suit jacket to fetch out his silver cigarette case, flicking it open and looking at his mall inventory. “I’ve got regular tobacco, I have a tobacco with mint, and I have my hand rolled babies that have just a smattering of dust on them to make the high very smooth. And to feel it much quicker than usual. You know how it is, smoke for an hour and after burning your lungs, it's not till you’ve really ruined it that you feel the more intense sensations..” He babbled about the cigarettes and his hand rolled joints that he always kept on him. It was a distraction from that look his brother gave him, the flash of worry, and he tried to reflect strength, calm towards him to compensate for this.
“Listren, Dorian, of course I will look after them. With my life and every ounce of my strength and ability. She and her child will be protected.” He leaned forward a bit and lowered his voice. “I know you’re worried. You have every reason to be. But we will figure this out as it goes. You know … this is like a present to her…she’s always wanted children I believe. We spoke one in the little cove inlet? We had a real heart to heart. And I made her a promise that I would take care of her, and you…always. I understand my role now better than I ever have. I’m not just the “new CEO of the company” I'm the fucking CEO of a multi national world wide shipping industry. I’ve made our fleet larger than father dared dream. He always said it would be impossible. But he was too scared to even try.” He lamented over this stuff, lifting his glass and swirling the amber liquid around.
“Niles is going to make sure she can breastfeed, and have donated milk as well. The babe will be fat and happy when you return, a little ham of a baby.” He took a long drink and nearly emptied his glass. “Plus, the trip will do you well. You need to go explore and be away somewhere new. You know I understand that desire quite intimately.” He snuffed and pulled at the hairs on his chin as he thought. He lifted his brows and his shoulders at him. “I have orders for Kyuu to get lots of materials in Japan, so we will have our ships docked for a while, during your stay. So if you need anything, make sure you get the dockmaster to point you to one of ours and there you go. You might even get Risley. He’s been making runs now for weeks, and he’s damn good at finding things that are not…out in the open in marketplaces, if you know what i mean?
Dorian drank to their kin when his brother did. He even pretended to be interested in what was in his brother's case until Drystan got to the heart of matters. He had waved off taking anything at the moment, but he did listen to his brother. His grand visions and optimism. He took another drink and looked into the bottom of his glass until it was empty upon mention of Niles. But he didn't top himself off again just yet. They'd already put quite a dent into the bottle. By the time Drystan finished, Dorian was ready to agree, after all the sooner he left, the sooner he could return, "I am sure you are capable of taking care of her-them, I mean. More than, given that you are already the CEO of a global company whose reach you have extended to encircle this world. I know. I know because you're my older brother." He would stop short of thanking Drystan, because that wasn't how it worked between them.
Instead of dwelling on that, he'd just explain, yet dodgy as he'd been about the whole trip, "If I run into Risley, I will try to remember that. He doesn't seem a bad sort, for a pirate. I don't think I should be away terribly long. I suppose it really won't hurt to remember what the world outside of this island is like. Nowhere can be as strange as this place. Even the far east."
He smirked at his brother and wound up plucking a plain cigarette out of the pack, and after Dorian had looked but not taken anything, he shrugged a bit and stuffed the case back into his blazers inner pocket. He pulled out a silver flip top lighter, and lit the cigarette, exhaling up and away from Dorian’s face.
“I am really trying to build something grand. Beyond Fathers shortsightedness, to take that leap to be more, have more presence, ..more..power.” He had his hand clenched in front of him when he was done speaking, the cigarettes smoke winding in circles around his face, curling up the sharpness of his jaw and the sternness of his brow. “I have ideas, things that can be achieved but I have to put the parts together that need to happen in order to manifest this greatness. The door is right there and wants me to open it.
” He had slowly reached his hand forward as he spoke, as if he was going to reach for a door’s handle. His eyes seemed to be looking far away, and his third eye opened wide and shifted to a circular forest green and dark black void.
“I can feel it, it's in my mind, it's in my bones. It's as clear as day to me. I just…I need to look…down, and back.”
He turned his frame, his head following his own directions, looking towards the wooden floorboards then over his shoulder at the bar and the patrons enjoying their early evening. Drystan licked his lips slowly and his hand dropped on his lap, and he flicked the long ash off his cigarette, shaking his head back and forth and he came to face Dorian again. He still looked a little glazed, but he was more present now.
“Oi, when is your departure time? If you bloody miss your boat I am never going to let you live that down.’ He reached out and gently shoved his brother's shoulder, and then stood up, taking a big drag from his smoke. He adjusted his coat and and again twisted his head from one side to the other, rolling his shoulder, and shaking out his legs. He was trying to shake off the feeling he’d had, and prepare to escort Dorian to the docks. On exhale he spoke with smoke spilling from his mouth as he did. “Was your promise to see Dinah soon go alright? Did she seem to take it okay? I just wonder because I might have a better idea of what I'm going to be walking into once I get home. “ He shuffled a few paces back and reached back into his back pocket for his wallet, and then turned to head towards the front bar to pay the tab and tip.
Dorian put the lid on the bottle and tightened it in answer to his brother's quandary about his departure time, "I have a little time. Enough to grab a couple of pastries from the bakery on the way back to the docks. I think I'll buy a couple boxes full, share them with the crew. You can help me carry them, they'll like them more if you bring them. And I don't think Charles knew what you were capable of. But I sort of suspect you aren't going to stop until you have the whole world in your grasp." He had studied his brother when that third eye opened and his gaze had wandered to some distant place. There was a moment of trepidation, but he shook it off, scooting off of his barstool. He trusted no one as much as his siblings, and he had to have faith that they'd fare alright in his absence. They'd survived without him before.
He followed toward the door, scruffling his hair in the back with the hand that wasn't holding a bottle of booze, he explained, "I am the last person she is worried about just now. She has the baby now. And a suitor. She isn't cross, I don't think, though I suppose my timing might seem questionable. I did plan to go, made up my mind, the day she--the night we gained another Windgrace. Before he was born, that is. Hahahahaha'' He could only laugh at how defensive he now he sounded. Well he could do that and try to snatch Drystan's lit smoke at once, seeing the smoke luxuriating and wafting around his brother made him want a puff.