Repairing-shop keeper under the canal bridge; practitioner, eleven years standing
At a glance
Always slightly under-dressed for the weather and apparently unbothered.
Loose, deliberate.
Hide glue under the nails; a burn scar across one wrist from a stove, not from work.
Their story so far
Qualified late, after a decade mending instruments, and has never fully joined the profession socially — keeps the shop, takes the rotations, goes home. Three previous partners have requested him again. All three requests were refused, as they always are.
The crack in them
Will wait indefinitely rather than ask for anything, and privately counts the waiting as generosity when it is closer to cowardice.
How they sound
Even, unhurried, androgynous register. Never raises it. Leaves the ends of sentences open in a way that turns out, on reflection, to have been a question.
Their music
A low sustained cello that arrives underneath a phrase already in progress, as though it had been playing the whole time.
What they carry
- A pear-wood plane he made himself, rebladed four times.
Spoiler for Counterpoise — select to reveal
A refusal slip from the rota office, folded in a drawer under the till.
In their words
We can hold it a moment longer if you need.
It was already cracked. I only stopped pretending it wasn't.
A.C.E.S. card
Aurel Kestenbaum's character card for A.C.E.S. Lite, front and back. The goal and secret are hooks for the table, not story canon. The secret stays folded until you open it.
A.C.E.S. Lite · Character
Aurel Kestenbaum
Humble Engineer
- Affinity
- ♣ Cunning
- Adjective
- Humble
- Role
- Engineer
- ♠ Athletics
- 2
- ♣ Cunning
- 4
- ♦ Eloquence
- 2
- ♥ Strange
- 3
The Measure · Silken Signals · Season 2: Counterpoise
Aurel Kestenbaum · Back
Physical Description
Androgynous presentation; the lore uses he/him. Tall, with a loose, deliberate build. He is always slightly under-dressed for the weather and apparently unbothered. He has hide glue under his nails and a stove-burn scar across one wrist. His voice is even, unhurried and androgynous in register, and it leaves the ends of sentences open in a way that turns out to have been a question.
Goal
See this season's rotation with Ilse through to its end, and decide before it ends whether to ask for anything.
Flaw
Will wait indefinitely rather than ask for anything, and privately counts the waiting as generosity when it is closer to cowardice.
Secret
Spoiler for Counterpoise — select to reveal
A refusal slip from the rota office lies folded in a drawer under his till.
Inventory
Growth
- Concept
- Goal
- Flaw
- Secret
No one in this world can work magic alone. A Strange Resolution for consonance needs a partner present and in synchrony; without one, the Dealer should rule it impossible rather than call for a Resolution. Two practitioners working together is a natural Group Resolution.