MTG Headcanon: Tamiyo and Dovin Baan
Time: A couple months ago
Place: Tamiyo’s home on the plane of Kamigawa
It’s taken time, tears, and tenderness with her family, but Tamiyo has finally begun to recover from her encounter with Emrakul and the botched and misguided interference of Jace and his fellow planeswalkers. There is still a slight tremble in her hand, but she has decided to begin letting other planeswalkers into her home again.
The very first planeswalker who comes to visit her at this time isn’t her good friend Narset or the tenderhearted Ajani; it is a Vedalken named Dovin Baan. Dovin had only visited her home once before, and he had clearly not been impressed with Tamiyo’s Story Circle. Still, he had followed every house rule and then some, so she tried to show him courtesy when he arrived.
After greeting him, Dovin nodded slightly and then remarked on the tremble in Tamiyo’s hand and commented that it was likely the result of insuffient sleep or dehydration, and listed some suggestions to remedy it. Tamiyo ignored the comment, smiled politely, and asked Dovin how she could help him.
Tamiyo treasures stories, but the long and detailed account that Dovin shared was perhaps the driest tale she’d ever heard. He went on and on about some kind of fair on his home plane, the renegades who were giving him trouble, and then finally got around to asking Tamiyo if she could help him with investigating crimes. She waited patiently throughout the story, and didn’t speak until her guest had said all he needed to say.
By the time the Vedalken finished, it was nearly dinnertime and Tamiyo was about to invite him to eat with her family when Nashi came in the room to tell them supper was ready.
Dovin Baan took one glance at Nashi and wasted no time listing off the young Nezumi’s many flaws to Tamiyo. The ill-fitting clothes, patches of raw skin, chewed fingernails, stuttered speech, and uneven gait were all laid out in a trail of clipped words from the Vedalken. Nashi ran out of the room trying to hide his tears of embarrassment.
Tamiyo was furious. Her son had made so much progress in the last year, and was really starting to become comfortable with his place in Tamiyo’s family. And now this visitor had come in and made Nashi feel like an outsider in his own home. She had not felt so livid and betrayed since-
Tamiyo looked at her guest and decided someone as important as an inspector didn’t have time for things like dinner invitations. She stood and motioned for the door, then smiled and said through cold eyes, “I really think you should meet the Gatewatch, Baan.”
