Keep The Blood In Your Head [Vaysey]

[Lord Merton]

(Guy tag is optional if you want Mal. S'up to youuuuuuuuu.)

After Lord Mannering's recent visit, Merton thought it was high time to do what he does best - brown nose the Sheriff and play The Rat. Too many unwanted guests were making themselves at home in Nottingham and they needed to do something about it. And Merton's bit was to bring it to the Sheriff's attention. Well, he couldn't exactly fight these people away - or get his sister to as she is incapacitated at the moment - and he his way with words was appalling. He could inform and play nice, that was it.

As he made his way to the Sheriff's quarters, Merton wondered whether Guy would be there. To be honest, Brian feared the leather clad man. Gisbourne could break him if given half the chance, Merton wasn't the strongest of people. And though the Sheriff was probably the more scary of the two, but so far he'd done nought to scare Merton. Ok, so he'd killed his father - there was no proof of that, only Hood and Edward's word and a dead body.Maybe that was sufficient proof, but Merton didn't care. The old man was weak - things were better now he was gone.

He hesitated outside the door, but enetered without knocking - no one ever did these days. Maybe it was more impressive to burst through doors, or more appropriate or something. The chirp of birds greeted him as he waltzed into the room. Brian didn't get the birds, where they just something to kill when the Sheriff hadn't had his 'kill quota' filled? Or did Vaysey genuinely like them.

"My Lord, we have a problem." Problems usually caught the Sheriff's attention. Normally they meant Hood or other pesky lords getting too big for their boots. This problem was sort of like that. Merton was here to complain about that ponce and the guy who'd try to kill him. He may leave that detail out; he didn't want to look completely incompetant. That's what the Nottingham game was all about, show the front you wanted to be seen and not what you want everyone to see.

"I believe that we have some unwanted guests." He was making this sound like Hood was about, but he wasn't meaning to. He was intending on evading the names though. His sudden bout of confidence when bursting through the door had left him and he was spiralling quickly down to his nervous, gibbering fool persona. He started to mumble about his encounter with both Lords in his homes, never audibly mentioning their names. He was waiting for the Sheriff to cut in and tell him to start making sense. Merton worked well with orders. They gave him a purpose or something to do.

[vaysey]

Vaysey was bored. He was frequently bored, if he was honest about it, because the people round the castle just weren’t as entertaining as they used to be. His fine guests were keeping to themselves, making sure no gossip could be spread about them, so they wouldn’t find themselves the centre of attention, and even his second in command was being dreadfully dull of late. Vaysey had taken to tormenting the kitchen staff, but when they all fell sick he found he had fewer people to play with.

And bored Sheriffs are never a good thing.

So perhaps Lord Merton’s visit wasn’t such a bad thing. Usually, he found the man most boring and far too eager to suck up to him, but anything was a welcome distraction from the fact that he had, once again, been bettered by the hooded menace of Sherwood known as Robin of Locksley, and had lost a fortune in the form of the Silver Arrow.

But Hood would be getting his comeuppance soon, and that made Vaysey all tingly inside. Nothing made the man happier than the thought of killing Hood and his gang.

Vaysey had long ago forgotten that he’d had a hand in killing Merton’s father, and in fact he’d let it slip his mind – the man didn’t seem to care, anyway, and if he did… Well, Brian would just find himself in the same situation as Daddy, wouldn’t he? Lying face down in a ditch with a knife wound in his back, maybe some arrows to frame Robin. That was always fun. Maybe he’d kill Merton’s sister anyway, she was a wretch and such a pain. And she kept distracting Lord Mannering, the only really interesting person around the place. Yes, she definitely needed to go, soon.

Vaysey was standing by his birds, checking on their health. He did, in fact, like his birds – there was something peaceful about them singing to each other, and of course he loved to cage up things that ought to be free. He only ever killed one when he was especially angry, and then it was usually an accident. And then the doors swung open, letting in the man he had spent the last few moments debating about. He hated it when people burst into his rooms without warning – couldn’t they at least fetch a guard to inform him of the person’s arrival? – and turned, hands still inside a bird cage, with a raised eyebrow and a bemused expression.

”We?” he asked, amusement in his voice. He removed his hands from the cage and closed the door, brushing them together to rid himself of any dirt that he’d gotten on them. ”What sort of problems could we have, Merton? I make sure to keep my business out of your lands, it’s much less troublesome.” He never saw any need to be polite to Merton – the man was a wimp anyway, he didn’t need to get on his good side. No, he left that for problems like Liselle and Sebastian, people who could actually surprise him.

”And again with the we,” Vaysey said, walking over to his table and settling down in his chair. He didn’t offer Merton a seat – he could stand, or he could sit if he really wanted, but he wasn’t getting an offer. He rolled his eyes as Merton returned to his bumbling self; he’d almost had respect for the man for a moment. He couldn’t put up with the mumbling, though. ”Merton, either tell me why you’re here or get out of my castle. I have better things to do than listen to you talk to the floor.” Which meant… well, pretty much anything else, really.

[Lord Merton]

The Sheriff's manner always made Merton tremble, which occasionally made him wonder why he was on this side. But then he remembered that the Sheriff would be far more fiercesome if Merton was on the other side. At least whilst Brian was of use on Vaysey's side, he would live. But he was still scary. The way he spoke made it very hard for Merton to even spit out his carefully planned words, which were slipping away rather quickly - if he was being honest. "I say 'we' in the sense that Nottingham has the... ur... unwanted guests... My Lord." He stammered, fumbling nervously with his hands. "My lands have no problem, except that man..." He gripped his cloak in rage, that lord had made a fool of him. (And tried to kill him!)

Merton's eyes followed the Sheriff as he sat himself down. Brian wanted nothing more than to sit down too, but he couldn't bring his legs to move. It felt as though his legs had become part of the stone flooring, he was a living statue there to gawp/poke fun at. Once the Sheriff was sat, Merton of course left his gaze fixate on an interesting swirl in the stone. He was that weak and pathetic that he couldn't look the Sheriff in the eye when he snitched on people. "Yes my Lord, sorry." He apologised after the scolding, he briefly looked up to the bored Sheriff before looking at the rock again. He had a composure to find here.

"The first problem, sir, is... There's this...." Half sentences never went down well, Merton knew (he used them often enough). Any minute now the Sheriff would snap at him and tell him to get out before he was removed out by force. Then Brian would never get a bad word in against Mannering. Just the thought of Sebastian's smug smile - the one which suggested foul intentions with his rotten sister - was enough to give Merton his words back. "There's a 'Lord' parading the streets of Nottinghamshire, invading people's homes - mine included - calling that he wants revenge on you. This man is a monster, he attacked my sister and Miss Alice Brandon. Had I not been there, the results could have been devastating."

So he switched the events around a little, but Merton was already weak in everyone's eyes. He had to earn his man points somehow, and if he had to lie, then so be it. Though, the information of the attack probably wouldn't have interested the Sheriff - he would be more interested in the revenge part. Mention anything which involves him and the Sheriff would be listening - so Merton believed. But now was the hard part. Should Merton mention Mannering now? Or after the matter of Sir Thomas was settled? Merton wanted both of them gone, for his own safety really, and if he mentioned Mannering now he might infuriate the Sheriff. It was common knowledge that Vaysey was fair fond of his new toy - Mannering.

Then Merton had an epiphany. He'd said "problems" before. If Vaysey noticed that he'd only spoke of one after suggesting that there were more, then Brian would file his complaint against the ponce. That sounded fair. That way, it would be the Sheriff's own doing that brought the issue to the surface. And if he didn't notice, Brian could just bring it up at a later date. When he'd had time to calm his quaking knees.

(ooc: sorry for lateness and lamenosity >.>)