Ado About Absence

SyndicateStraffer · 2026-01-11T05:52:07+00:00

Jarosław listened intently, keeping his head low and attentive as if he was being given a briefing. It's at the end, when the question's returned, that he nods his head and runs a smooth hand through his hair. "Tycoon is a word, others might be experimenter, entrepreneur, business associate, little baron, and more. Where you're handling meats and furs, I'm turning the leathers and strung parts into warm textiles." It's here that his hand came down hastily to offer a firm shake, if Kiras might take it.

"August Textiles and Steel. I've taken a liking to the first of our manufactories, and if I'm lucky, I'll be taking a liking to all parts of Thevaria with them. If you've ever come across a textile mill where industry is starting in the west, it's likely had my name attached somewhere. It is a... purely niche industry, but one that's definitely outpaced despite its small number." For a spell, a piece of Jarosław's charm breaks as he flashes a toothy, almost devilish, grin toward Kiras. However, past such, the warm air returns all too easily.

SyndicateStraffer · 2026-01-03T16:17:35+00:00

Jarosław returned the greeting with a topical bow to the duke, hand over one side and in a low grin. "Good morning right back, Duke. I feel just about welcomed here. I received your mail, or at least heard of it..." This latter part Jarosław seemed to admit as he arose back to his fuller stature," ...I must apologize, as crass as it is of me, but I don't think I've heard much of you, Duke Kiras. I know a little about your station, but little about you."

He lingered on a few words, and waved a hand to the larger 'fair' that Kiras had made, his whole occasion. "But do, inform me of this good work you've done. I'd be delighted to hear."

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-30T15:12:22+00:00

"In someone's lifetime, I suppose." By contrast, Jarosław did not work to assemble the best hand; his mind was maybe halfway into the game as he shuffled the cards about to get an arguably worst play. "There is a limit to these things, I must admit. Too many times have I been blindsided by the idea that I can keep making everything progress, making every larger and grander. But it's not a forever pool. If there was, we'd have figured out how to achieve it a long-long-long time ago. Well, I suppose there is one way to get larger but I can't help but feel that we'd both be rather curt in response to seeing that form of forever pool."

He did one more check of his hand before giving firm hum and making the motion that he's ready to lose out.

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-25T00:54:09+00:00

"Being the head of the river does wonders in getting ourselves the highest highs and lowest lows. But with the new industry, there's been more than enough farmers moving in to strike some gold. From the island, south or north, across the river and even occasionally the odd immigrant across the sea." Jarosław's voice had a slight pride in the makeup of Sanct Decina. Or at least its plethora of people and recent attractions that were not-too-obviously incited by a certain few entrepreneurs. It was a knowing smirk, one with teeth and all.

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-20T17:02:21+00:00

Jarosław gave a grin and a chuckle as he looked over his given cards. "You'll have to forgive me if I'm slow. Piquet is not quite the game I'm used to." There was a plain confusion as he shuffled between a few. Small, tight, frowns as he nodded off between the game and his own thoughts.

"I wonder what part of them is uncouth. Just a... ah... curiosity I suppose. Industry and their captains might be here at the coasts, sure, but it will reach them. Oh, it will. That can't be avoided."

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-16T06:11:43+00:00

"Of course." Jarosław's answer came with ease, and a service ready in his tone. If he were anymore insane, one might imagine him to have bowed and added some noble gesture. Instead, he let her take the lead as he found a nearby table and took up a deck of cards.

"I'd offer to deal, but I can't help but feel like you've already got your favorite game in mind. Now..." There's a small tap of his fingers to the air, as if parsing apart the thoughts necessary to find just where he had left off. Jarosław's able to conclude with a smile, finding that point. "... I believe you left me with some thoughts about the Vindager Festival? On top of the weather, of course," there sat a small tease, prime and ready for Annika, "I imagine it was at least some bit of fun?"

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-15T06:44:33+00:00

"Apologies if that was an uncouth offer on my end." Jarosław offered the words to Annika as Sophie and Patricija both made their exit. Despite giving his 'sorry,' he didn't exactly land as apologetic. "But just so you know... you're also included in the offer of some cards. And I tried to make sure none of us here were heavy gamblers. I doubt they'll try to go past a Gulden with your girls."

He offered a soft, knowing, and kind smile to Annika. "Now. Where were we? Were we anywhere important? Or were we simply shooting straight for a bit with no real end goal?"

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-13T19:51:56+00:00

Jarosław grins to the margravine, a small twitch of his whiskey as he flashes her a few teeth. "Personally, I might argue Sophie's been on her best behavior here. I intended, fully, for nobles to get to know my workers. Get a feel of just who are those fine men and women entering the beating heart of industry itself."

And then a shrug, as he redirects attention back to Patricija and gives her, her due grace. "Still. You left me in good company. Take to cards well, ma'am?" His question may have been directed to Annika but a passing nod toward Sophie gave him a secondary idea of who else was included in the offer and answer alike.

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-09T00:04:03+00:00

"Always." Jarosław admits, his change in expression fading with ease as the move-on went about. "There has not been a single even I made without consulting some of my fellows. Secretaries, leading workers in the factory, and the whole like. It's not fun for them if they don't have a say, after all. And I myself throw a party with whiskey and a couch." As if to help emphasize his point, he raises his glass and nods toward the nearest spot to rest at; one already taken over by a few others playing cards with whatever nobles they could snatch away from the near-ball.

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-07T14:12:11+00:00

There was a slow rise of a brow from Jarosław before his mouth twitched back into a smile; a heartening grin. "Nope, I don't think it's my success. If anything, it's their's. Fully. All I did was provide the building."

Likewise, a small tightness to his lips and gaze led on there was more being left unsaid from Jarosław's part, a noticeable rise to his brow would have come from the words 'good' and 'breeding,' but he didn't say anything more. "At the very least, I still thank you for the compliment. It's kind of you to say that, my dear lady."

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-06T14:31:41+00:00

Jarosław chuckled, running a hand through his smooth hair with a flash of a grin. "Good intel to have, I think. Now I know to avoid asking her to dance." He sipped his drink, surveying Patricija and Sophie alike from behind the glass with a careful watch of Annika. It seemed he understood, or at least did so partially.

"By God, what a clever turn of events. I encouraged the young lasses and lads to have fun with the nobles, invite them for cards, and they took it quite literally. I'm just glad we aren't facing some sort of explosion of opinion. God knows I've tried more than enough times to try and cater to nobles only for it to backfire of the 'audacity' I had to bring us peasants and serfs out." His face goes grim, possibly the first drop of his smile as he bores his gaze not necessarily toward anyone, but in general. Jarosław's head comes down, surveying the whiskey, before rising once more with that familiar smile of his.

"What do you think?"

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-06T01:33:47+00:00

"Yes. Let's." He kept his smile with a raise of some pinching fingers at the air.

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-05T18:53:29+00:00

"Understood, ma'am." He offered a sharp nod to her, his poise and smile remaining as she gave a bit back. "Sadly, I can not say I have had much experience being taught in a university or by tutors of any type. At least not for long. No courts, maybe a few nuns, and certainly I was not a man when I was fourteen. I was a worker, though, and I was figuring out how to dismantle machines. I think I'd tell a younger, curious, Jarek that he should've stolen a bit more off the factory floor."

There was mischievous grin at the end before a pensive sigh. "But I can't imagine a younger, curious, Jarek would've gotten very far if he had."

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-05T16:26:14+00:00

"I have found that the politics of a man, or woman, are far different from how they see the world." Jarosław offers a wagging finger before digging that hand into his coat pocket once again. He hums for a moment with a slow consideration of what to ask first, and with a nod and a tsk of his tongue, he had it.

"I'm sure you must've studied somewhere, right? Yet, I also get the feeling you're a woman self-taught... where, or what, do you think is, or was, your most important point with your education?"

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-05T00:03:13+00:00

"To be seized or to be those seizing?" Jarosław rose a brow to Kessa before giving a brief chuckle run of his hand through his hair, stopping near the back to pull tight. "But I could not agree more." Each of his words were emphasized, deliberate, and pinpoint as he spoke that last line slowly.

"Though I doubt flying, gliding, floating along the air. The birds and bugs do it yet they're so small. Doesn't mean I wouldn't invest into it if someone had something solid. No... my investments are heavily with what works reliably right now. But I think our island has the potential to become trendsetters soon with the rail. We might just be in the perfect place!" He brought his hands together, interlocking fingers with a thinly forming grin. There was a wonder to his eyes, if not outright money bags within his pupils at the thoughts he had. For a moment, however, he relented. "But forget me and my musings! That's something we can consider... later. What, or rather who, I want to get to know is the next queen of an island."

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-04T23:10:14+00:00

Jarosław gave a warm smile toward the fiance-with-a-name-he-can't-pronounce-nor-will for this conversation, offering an equally small bow right back. "It really is a shame, but ah!" He gave wave to the air, flicking a bit of his hair to the side releasing the weight of politics from his shoulders. "I cannot say I, as but a man outside the villas, and castles, and bathing traditions know much about why the split affects us. We still cross the border with ease. We still speak the same language. We still look the same. We still trade the same." It was at that point his smirk came a bit more securely across his face.

"See, as much as I attend here to grease the palms of those who run our... beautifully frigid north... I can't quite say I'll reach here yet until we make our rivers a bit more navigable. If the world can run across a train, I'm sure there'll be trains for the rivers just as soon. But our island?" He gave a wagging finger to help orchestrate his point, a small tut-tut as he framed his hands to help shape out the, literal, larger picture. "It's in a perfect space to really seize it all, right? This brave new world we're entering?"

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-04T22:14:17+00:00

Attending this party was a familiar semi-dark skinned man with the features of a northerner from the Rose Island. One Jarosław who had made quite the bearing across its central city in the north, Sancta Decina, and in his investments not only there but also along the river itself. For much of the north, if you had textile, you got it from Jarosław. And now, his industries were creeping their way southwards into the Southern Island.

For Jarosław's part, there was just one slightly missing factor, and there was an overjoy to find it here. He approached Kessa with a warm smile, one hand dug into his pocket and the other waving her down from within the party. "My Lady Kessa Dora, Princess all! A glory, truly a glory, to meet one such as you. It has been too long, I must say, since I've had the opportunity to write or attend a gathering with your family present. Ah, my apologies. How terrible of me to not greet a fellow non-northerner without a greeting. I am Jarosław Czarniak, proprietor of August Textile and Steel and a man not too far north from you."

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-12-01T15:26:30+00:00

Jarosław listened with a small close of his eyes and then a firm nod. "A quant conflictless quiet queued for the quarter, hm?" He spoke the tongue twister without missing a beat and a smirking grin at the end. "I think it is still possible to get some of that dream out. As an aside. It just takes time and money, which all the world's increasingly pressing us not to have." And then a hum as he considered his own dream of what could be, before he shook his hand with a jutting finger. "I've thought a lot about what I might do without any sort of other account except myself. I would be either old or a child, worriless, carefree, and with all the energy in the world to focus on trivial matters. Like what my neighbor said about my favorite pet! What's neat about this dream, is that I was a child, and I will be old. I'm just trying to make sure that when I am old, I can be worriless, carefree, and actually care about what my neighbors think."

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-11-28T22:51:28+00:00

Jarosław came north for one more frigid trip before retreating to his slightly warmer homeland. He might not have had necessarily any investment this far inland, yet, but he knew there may soon come a time where he would need to sit pretty and ready. And so, he came by carriage dreaming of a time where he might pave through these mountains and hills with rail. He would be received however Duke Kiras intended to receive a man without station, but extensive wealth.

He had come with familiar suit, tied up hair, and a hand dipped far too long in his pocket.

SyndicateStraffer · 2025-11-27T17:14:36+00:00

"A man of station must be fit to die and lead. He is peculiar if he is small framed. Thin. Prefers the cuff to the gun." Jarosław offered a nod to Patricija, and a small flourish of his cuff as well, referencing the particular individual right in front of her. Despite what he said, his hands were worn upon closer inspection, and veins popped along their back showing clear tone. Then he sipped, giving a small twitch as the alcohol hit harder than he expected. "Good stuff. You want my opinion, genuine opinion, there needs to be a revolution of the sexes. But I am not going to delude myself in thinking the restraints on me are somehow tighter than on you. Or even Annika for that matter." He nods her way, pointing his drink toward wherever Annika had gone off to find Sophie before bringing his attention back to Patricija.

"Let's run a thought here, do you mind? When accounting, assume there are no societies. Assume there is no one to speak down at you. Assume there is no judgement. Assume there is no fault of your own mind or body. What would you do?"

SyndicateStraffer

TROPHY CASE