Remarkable! You gave me something to work with - and here is my first draft version! Oh thank you, thank you. Now I have even more ideas - and it is especially priceless since the next dialog I am working on is called 'On the Nature of Love and Compassion'
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Aerie 1:
I...I have seen many...many cruel things, and –
Irenicus 1:
I wonder, how those who cut off your wings missed shortening your tongue, my dear whinepigeon? I suppose that was an oversight on their part. Clearly, you have always had a better chance of survival with festering wounds on your back than with intact ability for verbal communication.
Aerie 2:
I am...I am trying to understand, that’s all. I cannot picture...cannot picture anything more precious than love...and you...you have forsaken it-
Irenicus 2a (if in romance with a PC):
You think you know everything about love, because you have found a way into [CHARNAME]’s bedroll and grew big with his bastard child? A washing woman can do that, and I dare say in a more gracious way.
Aerie 3a:
Y...yes. I...love [CHARNAME] and I lay with him, and I carry his child. I shall...I shall ask you now...have you known what I know? Have you...have you given a woman a gift of immortality to carry under her heart? Or did you forget that it can be achieved by such simple and beautiful means, in your search for the ways to rip it bloodily from...from the city of your birth, from your own kin, from the woman who loved you, from-
Irenicus 3a:
You are forgetting one important part of this equation, little moth. The consent of the second participant is required for this method to work. And if one of the partakers is assured of her immortality by other means… But enough of this. Save your little incantations for someone, they can affect.
Aerie 4a:
Still...still I do not understand...
Irenicus 4a: And that is the thing you are doing best, my wingless moth. I assure you, your skill in not understanding is admirable. No need to hone it on me.
Irenicus 2b (if Aerie is in romance with Haer’Dalis):
And am I to assume that a girl who got herself deflowered by a stranger in passing knows ‘everything’ about love?
Aerie 3b:
I did...did what was right, and I do not regret it...and I know that I l-loved, that I did not betrayed my l-lover...I would not have...and that’s what I do not understand about you...Why would you...try to destroy someone who gave you joy?
Irenicus 3b:
Because that certain someone later ripped the soul out of my chest and left me an empty hulk, devoid of all feelings and emotions, turning her back on me when I needed her most? But enough of that… Save your little incantations for someone, they can affect.
Aerie 4b:
Still...still I do not understand...
Irenicus 4b:
And that is the thing you are doing the best, my wingless moth. I assure you, your skill in not understanding is admirable. No need to hone it on me.
Irenicus 2c (if not in romance with anyone):
And what do *you* know of love, little moth? What do you picture in your wildest dreams as you lie at night staring at the empty, unattainable sky?
Aerie 3c:
I...I picture devotion...I picture light...I picture a child with the eyes of his father in my lap. Children are...are our immortality. Have you n-never considered that or did you forget that it can be achieved by such simple and beautiful means, in your search for the ways to rip it bloodily from...from the city of your birth, from your own kin, from the woman who loved you, from-
Irenicus 3c:
You are forgetting one important part of this equation, little moth. The consent of the second participant is required for this method to work. And if one of the partakers is assured of her immortality by other means… But enough of this. Save your little incantations for someone whom they can affect.
Aerie 4c:
Still...still I do not understand...
Irenicus 4c:
And that is the thing you are doing the best, my wingless moth. I assure you, your skill in not understanding is admirable. No need to hone it on me.
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Irenicus 1 :
Now, again we two look at the sky and sigh in unison. You, wingless, and I, soulless. We only require a blind man to join our company for the picture perfect of complete absurdity.
Aerie 1:
No...no...it’s not absurd. Even a blind man, a soulless man, and a wingless woman can look at the sky...There is more...more to it than the desire to reach, to touch, to possess...
Irenicus 2:
Perhaps to shake a fist at it, cursing the fate, or to laugh at it – that is *if* you can? Infinitely more rewarding experience than sighing with dirt under your feet as a witness.
Aerie 2:
*Sighs* If you...you wish. But....but I think that...the sky...the sky is always there, without failing - it’s like hope.
Irenicus 3:
Ah, just as immaterial, blue and far away.
Aerie 3:
Do...do you take pleasure in perverting my every...word?
Irenicus 4:
Not really. You are forgetting I cannot feel any pleasures or pains. But I can sigh in unison with you to demonstrate my point.
Aerie 4:
I...I do not think so. I think...I think you might be learning that some...some things cannot be taken from others...
Irenicus 5:
(shakes head) Are you trying to work on *my* redemption by chance? Remarkable. I would leave this exercise in futility to [CHARNAME], if I were you. But I can fake pleasure while teaching *you* how to spit at the sky, little moth.
