Talent Squandered: Potions?

Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby Glenn » Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:37 am

Some things had been beneath Glenn Burnie's notice. It was understandable considering that he ran both the Inquisitory and the Government itself, understandable considering all that time he spent training, understandable considering the other sinks upon his time and pressures upon his mind, heavy thoughts, some held back, some driven forward. Understandable was not right. Understandable did not always get the job done.

The Inquisitory filled in some of the gap. They collected files, documented weird occurrences, did far more than that. Ultimately, though, if Glenn found something below his notice, it would only see so much follow-up.

The Potion-Maker and her Associate were beneath his notice. They were not beneath Giuseppe's, however. The Man in White had more time on his hands, had more desire to keep that time as full as possible, had different needs than Glenn Burnie. His Lady had different needs than her "husband."

So it was that the young and skittish former farmgirl, Mary Ford, Junior Inquisitor would come to the Broken Dagger calling upon one Raia, to accompany her to the Inquisitory for a more formal meeting.
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby breeevil » Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:42 am

Raia did not mind being beneath the notice of someone like a Governor. Any Governor, really. Being within range of their notice when you were not friends meant that you were doing something that was either very good, which she did not tend to live up to those kind of things, or very bad - which she did easily.

So hearing that she was being summoned by anyone, save for Endymion and Zilliah, came as a shock and left her quickly flipping through the catalogue of her mind to figure out where she left a vial, who she may have given the wrong potion to or if she had, maybe, run into someone on accident and left their skin blue.
The girl also quickly went through a list of anything -good- she may have done recently but came up with nothing. Too busy planning a wedding, being sad for a lost friend and contemplating the distress that came with the loss of the Seamstress.

Still, her head would be held high and her cloak fastened tightly around her neck, a small leather sack clutched in her fingers when she did come down the stairs, announcing firmly that, "I have not poisoned anyone, if that is what this is about." She didn't make anyone change, either, like Niall had thought.
The words could have sounded stronger and much more confident than they did.. they should have. It just happened that they didn't come out that way. But it didn't change their truth.
it also didn't change her wondering what exactly an Inquisitory is.
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby Glenn » Sat Jul 13, 2013 3:51 am

"We don't think you did," Mary Ford spoke, making conscious effort to mask her rural accent. In some ways she was a perfect candidate for Rhaena Olwak's Myrken. She was a low-level social climber, someone who wanted to embrace civility in the face of the dirt-farming she grew up with, to embrace learning and a better way of life. The problem was that she'd seen too much and she knew too much and she suspected too much and it made it all hollow. All she could do was try to decide what side she was on and until she did that, it was just a matter of keeping her head down and doing what she was told.

Here, she was told to get Raia, and one way to do that was to be as unimposing as possible. It's why she was sent. "We don't know a whole lot about you, Miss Raia, not really. That's part of why we want you to come on in and have a talk. That's all it'll be, a talk." Probably. Giuseppe was hard to predict in ways Governor Burnie wasn't. "If we did think that, then there'd probably be some Constables with me, and there's not. You don't even have to come. It's just probably a lot better for everyone if you do." She tried a kind smile but i came out a little queasy. "I'm one of those people, so i'd appreciate it, I would."
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby breeevil » Sat Jul 13, 2013 4:34 am

Raia breathes an audible sigh of relief as a smile lifts the corners of her lips up into her cheeks, the hand holding the little bag comes to her chest and fingers drum against her skin as if to calm a frantic heart. Not being suspected of bad things was always a nice thing to.. not.. be.
"Oh. Well.. thank goodness for that, right? People saying 'hey, you made someone sick' is a horrible way to start an adventure." She nods.

Just a talk. Just a talk that has a person coming to call on her and take her somewhere instead of just a letter. A talk that is better for everyone if she attends.
The Junior Inquisitors smiles.. kind of. And Raia's smile never fades.. her eyes crinkle up, her teeth find her lip to snag it between them lightly, her brows lift a bit on her forehead. And she just beams. No.. she's not worried at all anymore, after those kind and comforting words about better for everyone.
The benefit of being kind of stupid is that you wind up with an amazing fake-happy face.

"Well of course I want to go. Seeing things I haven't seen around here is fun and I like to not be bottled up inside and.. stuff. Should I go and find a horse?" Is asked as she pulls a little square bit of parchment from her small handbag. "I just need to leave a note for Endymion, he worries." The paper is flicked between her fingers and waved in the air a bit, it says 'Errands' and nothing more, obviously a note she uses over and over again. The thing is pushed to the bartender quickly and Raia moves right for the door, looking over her shoulder to ask, "What is your name?"
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby Glenn » Sat Jul 13, 2013 4:45 am

There were all sorts of people you dealt with when you were an Inquisitor, even a Junior one, especially a Junior one. There was plenty of legwork to be done and Mary ended up doing a lot of it. She had become a fairly good judge of people, or at least she thought she was. It meant that she realized there was one of two things before her now. Either Raia was a very cunning young lady who may well have poisoned plenty of people or she was just a bit simple. Even in this environment, it was her nature to take things as they were, to expect the best of people until proven otherwise. Maybe that's why she hadn't risen farther than she had.

"Mary Ford, Miss Raia. From Myrken. A farm up north," her smile was pleasant, a bit less forced. She didn't usually lead with that, but maybe Raia would find it disarming. There was no hand held out to shake but it was usually the custom when a man was around. Plus, she'd read of strange things happening around this woman. Best to keep her distance a bit, but cordially. "And a horse won't be necessary. We'll just take a walk into town. "

In truth, they hadn't even known whether or not the potion-maker could read, especially their language, so it was best to send someone in person. Also, and this was rather jarring, she was quickly coming to learn that Giuseppe disliked the use of letters in general. He didn't like leaving a trail and he certainly didn't have Glenn's way with them. "Come along then," She headed towards the door, opening it for Raia.
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby breeevil » Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:06 am

"It's nice to meet you, Mary." No handshake.. Raia was learning a lesson about shaking hands with people in Myrken. Something along the lines of what Mary was thinking.. strange things happened around Raia.. but the potion maker was pretty much convinced it wasn't her but just this town.
Fingers pluck at the strings to her bag, and still she smiles brightly, happily. Still her head bobs from side to side like she is hearing music. Still big grey eyes watch Mary Ford.
"Oh.. I always like meeting people who are from here. It must be nice for you.. never having to worry about being lost and knowing where everything is.. and stuff. I bet you travel very quickly. Your family is probably proud of you, huh.. growing up here and now you work here. Doing things that are good and.. stuff. Right?" Simple. No wonder people questioned her ability to read.

She nods, happy to just go for a walk into town. "Okay, good. I always feel badly when I have to make the horses go running around when it's so warm." But maybe an even more important question, "Uhm.. where are we going?" Her hair is drawn back and twisted around her hand to be tied into a knot as she slows down to let Mary move in front of her. "Thanks!" Is chimed, for the holding of the door, and Raia does not wait for her question to be answered before she jumps down off the steps and skips a few paces away from the porch.
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby Glenn » Sat Jul 13, 2013 5:12 am

"My family would have been happier if I stayed home and had gotten married and had three children now." It was just matter-of-fact. That was what farmgirls were supposed to do. Someone like she or Dulcie or the Kaczmarek girls (only Agnie and Nela, as the rest were more in line with the rest off society) were exceptions, extreme ones, and she was the meeker of the lot. "The Governor himself came for me though, came and asked. My family couldn't really say no. I'm lucky that he did. I have some choice to my life now." Though less and less it seemed, in the Myrken that was to come.

Still, Raia had been so positive with those comments, that even as they started down the portch and onto the path back towards town proper, she couldn't help but respond. "It's easier being from here, it is. You're right. It has to be confusing to just appear here someday. That's what our records say about you. That you were just here one day. Is that true?" To be fair, they hadn't gone well out of their way to ask people at the borders if they had seen her arrived as they do for some people. She just was below their notice.

"The Inquisitory," to answer her other question. "It's where I work. It's not as bad as it sounds. I think Governor Burnie," and how to explain it. He came back from Underdark and he wasn't right in the head? Hardly patriotic. "A lot of the threats we have to face here in Myrken are pretty scary, so maybe it makes sense that we have a scary name too."
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby breeevil » Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:06 am

"Everyone dreams of their daughters having a beautful life." She says, thinking that a husband and three children would be something wonderful for any girl to wish for. It was far better than a lot of the other options that weren't really options so much as fate. "Even if that beautiful life is brought on by being a.. uhm.." What is Mary called? "City.. official kind of person." Good enough. Raia nods, satisfied with the girl being just that, a city official. And as they walk she just keeps smiling.

Records. She had never had records before, and didn't know if she should be a bit excited for it or not. She was, just a little bit, whether it was good or bad. "Sort of." She answers, one shoulder lifting in a shrug. She walks a little slower, but still follows without question, feet landing carefully one in front of the other in what she hopes is a straight line, arms moving out to her sides for balance on the totally level ground. "It was the trees. In the trees, I mean. The forest. And someone helped me find the path that took me to the Dagger." She was loath to admit who it was that helped her, even to Endymion. The fae was fickle about things that might just include his part in bringing her to this place. "And I just haven't left yet."

Rememdium. Inquisitory. They had big words for everything around here. Words that were easy to pronounce wrong and forget what they mean or confuse them for another word.
Raia nods, though. "All threats are scary. If they're not scary then they're not threatening.. and stuff. Is that all you do at the Inquisitory? Go look for people to walk with?"
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby Glenn » Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:56 am

"Not here they don't." Mary's smile was a quiet thing, just like the rest of her. It was never easy to explain this to an outsider, especially one who seemed so happy. Still, she'd try. "Here, they just hope that their children live at all. I've lost kin, a sister; she was just a by. Most people I know are the same. That's what we're trying to change, Miss Raia. We're trying to make a better life for our children, even if it means we don't get to have them. I know that might not make a lot of sense but it's the decision we made, most of us from here who work for the Governor. We don't get to see the better life but we know that someday our people get to have it. That's good enough. It's better than anything we were offered before." They kept walking but the Junior Inquisitor seemed increasingly different. "I'd like a beautiful life for someone here someday."

Everything she said would be added to that record. There was a small reward for such additions for people in Mary's position and a small thrill for just filling in pieces, even of a puzzle that had been deemed unimportant before. Ultimately, though, it probably wouldn't matter much. The new High Inquisitor would get what answers he wanted out of her. That was sort of what he did.

"Some threats are scarier than others. More threatening too." She shrugged her shoulders. "So we're more too. That's how it works. We don't look for people to walk with, Miss Raia. We see questions that need answering and then find answers to them."
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby breeevil » Sat Jul 13, 2013 10:21 am

She doesn't stop walking, but for the first time her smile falters.. trips. One corner of her mouth slides down to tuck her lip between her teeth and chew for a moment and she just listens and stares at Mary. That is one of those things that leaves her wondering why she is still here. This place is just sad. And for what reason? People here were just kind of hateful, stingy with their trust. It's like they brought bad things on themselves, sometimes, because there was no identifiable bad guy. The Governor was not a bad person. The tax collector was nice. The man who owns the theater is very sweet, so was the baker.. if you have a nice leader and nice people around, shouldn't better things come?
This place was backwards.

"It will happen, then. If you want something bad enough it usually works out. Because wanting it bad makes you work harder, right?" She offers words only for the last bit of what Mary says because she couldn't think of anything nice or positive to say to the rest. She didn't want to insult anyone who worked for the Governor by asking something like then what is taking so long?

Her smile refastens itself to her face and she nods, switching back to a more normal pace.. not one that a kid takes when they're walking on a balance beam. "I don't think I'll ever understand it. The whole.. grr and grr thing." Her hands come up like claws and make swiping motions at Mary. But she doesn't elaborate on what she could possibly mean by that, just drops her hands back to her sides and nods. "But you've only asked me like.. one question."
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby Glenn » Sat Jul 13, 2013 2:39 pm

"It will get better because we care." She said, she agreed, and it was easy, except for right now the Governor was missing. Maybe he was in Thessilane, in secret, there to match whatever offer the crown had just made. That really did make a lot of sense but Giuseppe's presence put a damper on things and so did all of the strange things that had been happening. Things did seem like they were getting better, but to look at it out of the corner of her eyes, things were just askew.

Then Raia points out, quite rightly, that she had asked few questions and Mary smiled. She had said their job was to solve mysteries. "Well, I'm really just here to accompany you to see my... my current boss, Mister Giuseppe," the man in white, so recently a man on his very last legs and before that an assassin, even if he was the Governor's. She tried to force a smile and failed. "I'm not even sure he'd have time to read any report I made before seeing you. I don't want you to have to answer the same question twice," but, since she was an Inquisitor and she was curious and Miss Raia was so friendly. "It's still a few minutes til we get there. We can make it interesting. How about we make it a game? If you were me, what would you ask you?"
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby breeevil » Sun Jul 14, 2013 1:55 am

Giuseppe was a familiar name, but not a face to the potion maker. Someone had said something about a Giuseppe.. but she couldn't be sure right now who said it or what it was. It didn't have a nice ring to it, though, that name. "I thought the Governor's name was Glenn." She says, head tilting to the side. She really did.. she remembered talking about it with someone the other day. A glen and Glenn.
Report. It's almost like 'record' but not. Report is more current. It's more available. Where Mary tries to smile and fails, Raia continues to succeed. But her hands remain busy in front of her, fiddling with her small bag instead of flailing around in front her like the usually do what she speaks. "That's nice of you. I have to ask people to repeat themselves all the time and sometimes I think they're ready to smack me upside the head at the end of it all." She giggles a bit. "It comes with your job, huh? Thinking about things like that.. those kinds of courtesies. It must make people more.. uhm.. confident in you and one of the people who inquires." Her head tilts the other way for a moment, then she shrugs, and chuckles again.

"Ooh! I like games." She does like games. At the question, Raia hums, tapping a fingertip against her lips in thought. "Well.. I like to ask people questions about their pets and their favorite colors and where they lived when they were little and if they like the smell of cinnamon or if they ever held a holey rock. But I don't have to make reports and stuff, I just have to make things. So I guess if I were you and I was trying to do some officialish businessey kind of things I would ask something like.." But.. she's got nothing to say for a long moment. She is not an important Inquisitory official. She was not someone who would ever be sent to retrieve someone else for something so simple as shopping, let alone delivering them to someone in a building with a long name.
"What kind of things can you fix or why are you here? I guess that's something I would ask if I were you and I was trying to fix things like you probably try to fix or had a record that just said some girl randomly showed up at that Inn." But she shrugs. "And the answers are.. I can try to fix anything but pots don't always cooperate. And I'm not sure." There is a look for Mary.. a moment of thought. "You look like someone who has a puppy with a very normal name."
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby Glenn » Mon Jul 15, 2013 1:52 am

"We lived on a farm, Miss Raia. We had a lot of animals, but I had a cat named Tom." She almost seemed offended, almost, but it didn't seem like Raia was judging her on that. It was just matter-of-fact to her, like how she had red hair. She had a cat named Tom. It was either excruciating or refreshing. She honestly didn't know. The rest, though, was a flurry of words, and the young Junior Inquisitor was left behind, records or no. It was just that bit that she could hold on to.

Then, quietly. "You don't know why you're here." The tone, though Raia did not know it as of yet was best summed up with the words Giuseppe Would Not Like That. "Did you have a pet wherever you came from?" Just as Giuseppe would not like that, Giuseppe also would not have been able to ask that specific question of the potion-maker. Mary was barely sure why she did.
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby breeevil » Mon Jul 15, 2013 5:19 am

Raia sighs dramatically as her head rolls back and she squints at the sky, her fingers snapping in front of her, "I almost said cat, too. I really almost did, but in all the old storybooks everyone has puppies on farms and kitties are inside barns doing all the mouse and spider hunting. Tom is the best name for a cat. Was he one of the orangey ones with stripes?" Because those ones should always be named Tom. The near-offense is not really noticed, Raia is anything but rude and knows it.

There is a small pause, grey eyes finding Mary again and her smile doesn't go away.. but her brows do flare up a bit. "No. I don't. How come everyone looks at me with that face when I say those words?" Her tone is not accusing, rather curious. She was here to learn, she knew that. Everywhere she went was so she could learn something and once she figured whatever it was out.. she left. She hadn't done much searching for whatever it was, though. She was distracted by things like an Endymion she summoned, totally on accident, who had recently proposed, or the friend she had managed to lose under some blankets, also an accident.

"No. I'm not very good with animals, actually. I mean they don't hate me or anything. Most of them like me very much, but I forget to feed them sometimes. Or I lose them and don't remember it for a long time and by then it's just too late to find them. Or.. they might turn into something else or find something they shouldn't find. And then they leave." She shrugs one shoulder, because all of that is normal. "I'm better with plants. But they're usually mean, so it's a chore to keep them around. Except Ferny. Ferny is not very mean." Raia glances around, plucking once again at the strings on her bag. "How come you don't get another kitty?" Mary said had, not have, so Raia can assume the cat is back home with the girls family. Hopefully.
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Re: Talent Squandered: Potions?

Postby Glenn » Mon Jul 15, 2013 6:11 am

It was like leading a lamb to the slaughter. Mary rather thought she'd be doing a lot of that in the future. It wasn't that Governor Burnie was a saint, and he wasn't, and she well knew it, even if he did save her from a pretty boring life without any prospects that she didn't want to have, and instead let her use that reading that she taught herself to do, even though her Pa didn't think she should and her Ma didn't do a great job defending her even if she thought that she should, and to learn so many more things, and to meet so many interesting and important people like Mister Cinnabar, but she knew how he wasn't a saint, or some of it at least, because it was the Inquisitory's job to know things, and maybe she didn't have access to all the files because she was just a Junior Inquisitor, and maybe people didn't always think she was as smart as them there, and maybe, just maybe, she wasn't, but she kept her eyes and ears open, even when it was hard and even when she didn't want to and even when it meant learning something that wasn't good at all, something that she then had to live with, so she knew a thing or two about Glenn Burnie and what he's done, but she also knew that he was doing it not for him but for them, for each and every one of them, because she could hear it in his voice and she could see it in his eyes, and if she could feel his heart, she knew full well taht she could feel it there.

Giuseppe was another matter. Sometimes she thought he wasn't even sure why he was doing what he was doing.

"I don't really have room for a cat now. I just have a room and they don't like having pets there," that idly, while her mind was on anything else, and then, because she knew Giuseppe would ask all of his questions and she could only help by asking hers instead, she looked to Raia and said, "What did you learn wherever you were last?"
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