History is a set of lies agreed upon... {RICHARD}

[Mordred Le Fey]

There was one reason Mordred had decided to study history.  As Roosevelt had said, 'the more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future', and in the case of students like Mordred, this was more true than Roosevelt could ever have imagined.

They were currently studying medieval England, and Mordred sat at the back of the lecture theatre, slouched back in his seat, notebook still pristine and brand new on his desk back in his house, and a pen tucked behind his ear.  He sat with one foot up on the seat next to him, listening to the lecturer with a look of amusement on his face.  He had expected, given the alumni and current student population of the university, and the various places they hailed from, that the history course if nothing else couldn't fail to be anything but exceptionally accurate.  But the 'medieval England' that this fusty old dude was droning on about was nothing like the medieval world that he had come from.  Sure, the fact that his parents and various members of his extended family had attended Tintagel themselves, bringing back various future technologies and knowledge, had somewhat warped the reality of the medieval world he lived in.

But even so, this guy really was talking rubbish.

"What a load of bollocks..."  He muttered, to no one in particular, as the lecturer began to talk about animals wandering around people's homes, doing their business on the floor people then slept on...

[Richard Locksley]

History was an intriguing concept, given just how much of it was actually the future as far as he was concerned. Besides, he wanted to know what they had to say about people he actually knew, so far there hadn't been much, but perhaps that was something to do with the apparently near-mythological nature of his parentage. He wasn't the only one in the class who had that problem, apparently, he'd heard that there were a few students at the school who were the children of King Arthur and his assorted compatriots, and wasn't that an interesting idea?

What was neither interesting nor intriguing was this idiot's idea of the medieval period. A period, that, according to his vague understanding of what the teacher was droning on about, seemed to span not only his time but also that of King Arthur, and that just seemed like an awfully long time to write off as 'medieval'. But hey, maybe he'd got it wrong. Couldn't be more wrong than the lecturer currently was.

"Of course, if you're a peasant maybe," he muttered, just before the guy in the seat next to him also added his commentary. Richard turned to him with a faint smile "I see you are just as enamoured with this lesson as I am?" he asked quietly.

[Mordred Le Fey]

Looking over, Mordred chuckled. “Enamoured is the word for it, indeed.” He muttered, shaking his head incredulously as the lecturer continued in his completely inaccurate descriptions of medieval life. “Pretty sure my horse could give a better lecture than this.”

He allowed his voice to raise slightly at his second comment, causing the lecturer to pause for a second to glare at him. Mordred grinned back, motioning with his hand for the lecturer to continue. Turning back to his fellow student, he shook his head again. “And I thought studying history was an excellent idea for someone technically from history.” He took his own out from behind his ear and started tapping it on the small desk in front of him, earning himself some irritated looks from other students who were scribbling furiously on their notepads.

“What a waste of time.”

[Richard Locksley]

Richard snorted under his breath at the way the lecturer glared at them and Mordred's mocking little gesture for the man to continue. It was very clear the two of them were of the same mind about this class, and he was glad for someone to take his mind off the dull drone of the lecturer's voice.

"Funnily enough, I thought the same," he nodded "I thought it would be easy with a dash of interesting, instead it's dull with a dash of stupid." he could entirely agree on the waste of time part, the man hadn't told them anything they didn't know - well, that wasn't technically true, he'd told them a lot they didn't know, just none of it was true - and it had just ended up being far more boring than he anticipated. He should have chosen a subject with more of a point to it.

[Mordred Le Fey]

This person had peaked Mordred's interest - Mordred was interested in anyone who was from 'history', however loosely interpreted. He turned in his seat to give his companion his attention, and held his hand for the other guy to shake.

"Mordred Le Fey." He introduced himself with a trademark charming smile. "A dash of stupid is being somewhat generous." He commented with a nod to the lecturer, ignoring the shushing that was coming from nearby.

"I'd love to take him back home for a day, show him what it's really like. It would blow his little mind." Mordred smirked.

[Richard Locksley]

The name rang a bell, he'd heard a little about the kind of people who had been at this school, and he had a classical enough education that he knew the tales of King Arthur.

"Your reputation precedes you," he smirked slightly, though he wasn't inclined to think poorly of Mordred just because his role in most tales appeared to be somewhat villainous, given his upbringing he was far more sympathetic of villains than he probably should be, and definitely more than his father would prefer. It wasn't that he held any love for his 'adoptive' father, it was simply that he'd come out of his upbringing with so much rage and resentment that he could understand the more villainous position.

"Richard Locksley," he returned, snickering at Mordred's following comment "and I know what you mean, drop him in the middle of a village somewhere and watch him probably get dumped in a manure pile for pissing off the locals."

[Mordred Le Fey]

He loved hearing he had a reputation - to be entirely honest it didn't even matter what the reputation was, Mordred just loved the thought of people knowing who he was. He smirked at Richard. "Always good to hear."

His eyes lit up when he introduced himself. So this was the big brother, the lost child stolen from his crib only to be returned fully grown and raised by the enemy, disrupting life for the disgruntled siblings.

"So, you're Richard. It is truly a pleasure to meet you." He grinned.

[Richard Locksley]

"Oh dear," Richard deadpanned, but he smiled faintly back "I take it my reputation precedes me as well?" he wondered exactly what Mordred had heard. He didn't particularly mind if it was all bad things - especially since Mordred himself didn't particularly seem to mind - but he at least hoped it was vaguely flattering. God he hoped it wasn't some nonsense about how tragic his life had been and how overjoyed his parents were at his return, because he'd already had far too much of that vomit-inducing sappiness.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too," he added "Although that might depend on exactly what you've heard about me."

[Mordred Le Fey]

"You could say that," Mordred smirked. Gods, he loved family drama. He was usually the cause of it, so he couldn't help but revel in someone else's. Plus, he loved drama, and this whole situation seemed pretty dramatic.

"Ah, well, that would be telling." Mordred shook his head, raising his eyebrows, the smirk firmly plastered to his face. "The phrase 'prodigal son' has been bandied about a fair bit though." Mordred had heard Gwen talking about the whole situation, and obviously Gwyn was far from impressed with the whole situation. He was interested to put the feelers out and get a sense of what the deal with Richard really was. So far, he liked the guy.

"Of course, Gwyn's descriptions have been somewhat less flattering." He grinned.

[Richard Locksley]

"Oh I'm sure it has been," Richard smirked "Precious little Gwyn who has been enjoying daddy's attention for far too long, what with Eddie being so useless she never had to share the spotlight. Suddenly there's a brother around who actually does know what they're doing and she's not so special anymore. Robin has the son he always wanted back, she's been the next best thing up 'til now, but who needs the consolation prize when you have first place?"

Arrogant? Smug? Richard? Who would ever think such a thing... oh, yes, anybody who'd ever met him. Richard's towering self-confidence was incredibly difficult to shake, and Gwyn's frustration at his very existence was just plain amusing.

[Mordred Le Fey]

While he fully agreed with Richard's assessment of Eddie, he was surprised to feel a bit himself wanting to defend Gwyn from Richard's attack. It made sense, he supposed - she was pretty much the only girl he could actually call a friend, and she was a damn good sparring partner. It wasn't her fault she'd been the apple of her parents' eyes with Richard having been spirited away.

"Huh." He scratched his chin in mock thoughtfulness. "Seems Gwyn's analysis might not have been too far off the mark after all." He muttered. "Can't really blame her for being, well, pretty damn talented to be honest. Sometimes these things are just a natural gift - you just have to look at me to see that."

Of course, he could certainly understand Richard's point of view as well. "What was it like being raised by one of the bad guys, anyway?" He asked, genuinely interested. "Pick up any dark and dirty tricks you'd care to share?"

[Richard Locksley]

Richard shrugged, brushing off Mordred's comments about being able to see Gwyn's side of things. Perhaps her analysis of him had been correct, whatever, he didn't really care what she - or anybody else - thought of him.
"I'm not saying she doesn't have skill," he conceded (but only because she wasn't around to hear it) "She's just sore about my return because I have plenty of skill too and she's got a little too used to being the gifted one in the family."
As far as he was concerned, that was all they were mad about, he'd shown up and 'stolen' the things that made them feel special. Pathetic.

"It was..." difficult. exhausting. painful. "enlightening." his smirk gave no hint to the darker thoughts crowding into his head. "Less dirty tricks and more.. an attitude. It's not the tricks themselves, it's the willingness to use them, the intelligence to take whatever opening you can see without worrying about honour or morals. Although I've had a lot of training, so I know a few specific dirty tricks as well."

[Mordred Le Fey]

Mordred snorted at Richard's comments. Yeah, that was probably true - it couldn't be easy to be the star of the show and then have someone waltz in and take that away from you. Mordred understood that to an extent - every time Gwen popped out another kid or two he'd found himself pushed further and further from the limelight he'd enjoyed so much as the first child in Camelot. If he wanted to think about, or particularly cared, he could probably attribute this to his attention-seeking and acting out behaviour - tormenting the other kids, the servants, the parents, and anyone else who happened to get in the way in Camelot had certainly put him back in the limelight, even if it wasn't in quite the same adoring way it had been before.

As Richard talked about life with the villains, Mordred took his feet off the other chair and swapped seats, moving a seat closer to Richard. "An attitude... that makes sense." Mordred was pretty sure if he didn't already have that attitude, he could certainly learn it. There was something enticing about it. And a willingness to use dirty tricks... that he certainly had.

He smiled charmingly at Richard, a smile usually reserved for his parents and the king, a smile that charmed him to anyone and almost always got him what he wanted. "Well, I can't deny that I'd be more than intrigued to hear about these tricks you know." Richard was holding his attention better than the droning lecture could ever hope to.

[Richard Locksley]

Richard could see the shift in attitude in response to his words, and the smile he gave Mordred in return was more than a little pleased. He found Mordred charming enough already, but it was clearly being dialled up, which meant Mordred wanted something from him (he was blessedly direct about what that something was, Richard didn't always approve of dancing around words) and, well, you didn't get something for nothing. He didn't know right now what Mordred had to offer, but he'd be able to find out.

"Well I'm sure we can come to some arrangement," Richard agreed with a tilt of his head. Best to let Mordred know up front that he didn't intend to give up this information for free "I know things for all sorts of situations, any particular problems frustrating you at the moment? I might be able to prove an alternative solution..."

[Mordred Le Fey]

"Oh, I have many situations." He commented with a smirk. "I'm probably looking for a more general example, something I can adapt to meet different needs and requirements." He raised an eyebrow at Richard, smirk still firmly in place. "Of course, I can't imagine you'll be wanting to give anything away for free. The 'bad guys' don't work that way, do they?"

Ever since Mordred had arrived in Trenale and started reading up on the 'Arthurian legends' - a name that always bothered him since he felt he was as integral to those stories as anyone else - he had felt a lure to the ways of the villain. He knew he had a reputation, he knew he wasn't particularly well thought of by many in Camelot and even here at the school, but he also knew he couldn't be considered a villain, or anything close to the Mordred of legend. But it tempted him, he was drawn to it.

And if there was a ready made 'bad guy' right here in front of him, then why not take advantage and learn as much as he could?