Plans for the upcoming winter.

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 07, 2014 4:57 am

"Aleksei," Aleksei River. About a far from Aeryn Karolinger as one could get, save for the dangerous power that both of them contained within them at the end. It was at the beginning with Aleksei too, of course. "Someday you're going to have to explain to me just how all that worked. Were you trying to tell us something with that?" Had they neglected her? Maybe they had neglected her. His tone was light enough suddenly. "Someday, but not now." It didn't last.

It didn't matter now because she was saying what she saying and thinking what she was thinking. "Agony, listen. If you don't want to be here, if it's not worth it to you, don't stay for my sake. I'd rather you be happy then miserable here. This is a place worth fighting for, but not just for the sake of it. Nothing for the sake of it." Not even living. He had made that clear. "As for me? They might kill me next month or next year, but they're not coming to kill me now. If they wanted to, they would have done so that day. It's bad out there, but we turned the corner from crisis to actually dealing with it. We might not make it through the winter, but we stood up there and reclaimed our lives," her life at least. Glenn and Genny's weren't on the line til the speech began. "Now it's up to what we do next."
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby channe » Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:36 pm

"There's -- what?" She's confused, and obviously so. "There's no -- no message, I --" she pauses, shaking her head. "You thought I was... you thought I was --"

Just like her mother.

Just like her family.

She shakes her head, closes her eyes, and opens them. "Have you thought about... not being governor? You've gone through a lot, Glenn. A lot more than we would ask or even need. ... we reclaimed our lives. Why don't you..." A pause. "Why don't you come to live with my family for a while. Rest up. It's the Calomel farm, it's totally secure. I.. I won't ask you not to be governor, but I will ask you not to be alone."
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:42 pm

She's confused and he's smiling again, even if it is a weak, wane thing. "I'm kidding, Agnie, for the most part at least. It was an odd match, you and him, that's all. You write it down and it makes no sense. Love works in strange ways, though. I know that as well as anyone. Look at what it just did to me." It was a matter-of-fact sort of statement. It had blinded him at the worst possible time and in the most harmful way to everyone involved. He wasn't looking for sympathy. Instead, he was trying to give it.

It was a nice offer. A different sort of running, but it was nice. "People are starving. My people are going to have a hard winter. I'm going to ride it out with them." If not him, then who? Ariane? He wouldn't put that upon her. Treadwell? People would die. Berdini? Even more so. "After that, we'll see."
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby channe » Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:43 pm

"It's not an odd match," she says, an edge to her voice. "He's kind and he's smart and he loves me." And she's old, and she's used, and he is willing to touch her -- all things left unsaid, of course, except by the ruder mouths of the town, mouths that, until recently, wouldn't speak for the fear of getting pelted by Agnieszka's very effective fist. But she's shaking her head -- "No. It got past all of us. Here she was with the dresses and the proper ma'am things, and I was thinking she was just... just in love with what was going on down there, because... well, it's beautiful." A pause. "It's really beautiful." But she shakes the memories out of her head as quickly as they come.

"Okay. Fine. It's great that you want to ride it out, but you haven't been out there." An apologetic look crosses her face. "I'm not blaming you or anything, but... but I've lost a lot of their respect, and so have you, and it's not a simple thing to fix. Frankly, shutting up most of the people will be easy, just feed 'em and be there to answer their questions and listen to them." And she would know, wouldn't she? "It's the louder voices that need to be silenced, and soon. Once that's done, it'll be clear sailing until spring. And... and really, don't be alone, Glenn. Just don't be alone. I know how that feels."
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:51 pm

"It's an odd match." Back and forth, and was she going to punch an invalid? That'd be rare even for her. This was a rare thing indeed: someone spelling things out instead of just letting Agnie decide whatever she wanted. "Which is not me saying that you're not smart and kind, I'm not saying it's a bad match either, just an odd one. That's not me judging you or it. I'm just pointing things out. You don't have to be defensive. I've got no leg to stand on right now," literally and figuratively. "If I'm going to insult you, you'll know it, Agnie.

"As for Rhaena, I lost her years ago. I thought I could cling on to what was left." It wasn't that different than Agony and Aeryn at one point. It was just frills instead of blood. "It was a mistake."

The rest was the rest. "Food. To hell with prestige and good will. I stemmed the bleeding for a time. What we need now are practical solutions. That's the way you deal with any angry crowd. You figure out why they're most angry and you cut out the reason for it. Rhaena died. That's number one. Number two is food. What we've done so far is the start of number two, but it's just a drop in the bucket. The issue is how to get more. I can liquidate a lot of Rhaena's admittedly," though not loudly admitted, "ill-gotten assets, a lot of my own," that were completely honest, of course. "We have money some more that wasn't wasted in the government that we haven't put towards this. There's not long before the roads become totally impassable though and we're going to get fleeced even more but that's a necessary evil given the need." It was that simple. That's what they could do. It was the normal response, the balanced one. It wasn't nearly enough. "There are other options, of course."
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby channe » Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:52 pm

"... It is not," she says, and finally shakes her head and sighs, making to drop that argument. They're obviously not going to agree; for Agnie and her family, it was the best of all possible matches, and that's all they are going to see. "... and you can't insult me, you've done enough of that already for an entire life, so I just ignore you now when you mouth off."

She shrugs, and then listens to him, nodding.

"We're not going to get much from Derry, and the pass is awful now." She hasn't said that she probably can't even get to Thessilane at this point, let alone within a week. She doesn't need to. Both of them would know that this deep in winter, the pass is impossible. "There's... there are things going on there, things that I haven't even told you. Burel has built a number of checkpoints and fortifications on the Derry-Myrken border with the help of the dwarves. He has an airship. Of course, he was all kindness and puppies while we were there, but... something doesn't sit right with me, Glenn. I had a theory a while ago that he's back to his old tricks, his desire to go up against the Crown, and you and Aleksei started to talk me out of it, but there's not many reasons to build military forts on our border and sometimes the most obvious answer is the right one." She rocks back on her heels, searching for a more comfortable position, biting her right thumbnail. "But Thessilane is an option, when it comes to food right now. Channelers can bring it in. Heath looked like they had a good harvest last time I came through."

And then, he catches her attention again. "Other options?"
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:57 pm

"I plan to have a long life of insulting you ahead of me, Agnie. It gives a boy something to live for. Goals, you know." That was the difference between then and now. Now she stopped and listened long enough for him to clarify things. Now, he cared enough to clarify.

She spoke and he nodded. "Well, it's like this, then. The roads to the south are still passable for now. The crown keeps getting in our business, so we have every right to ask for aid, for once. Their argument, or at least Kostroma's, was that we never ask them for help so we never get it. People's lives are at stake. So we come more under Burel's thumb or we come more under Chewdry's thumb. Or..."

Here a pause. Those were two ways. There was one other. "There are a lot of people who benefited from what Rhaena did. Either they were victims and made to benefit and change or they were people poised to benefit anyway, who took advantage and loved every second of it. The mob took some but only a few. There are some rich people, new rich, not nobles but headed that way, who are sitting fat and pretty. They have plenty of food and things we can sell, plenty they didn't necessarily have before. Maybe if we wait long enough the mob will take it all and kill them, or maybe we can step in and take some and redistribute it and not end up under anyone's thumb and everyone gets to survive a bit longer." It was a desperate measure, but these were desperate times.
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby channe » Tue Jan 07, 2014 12:58 pm

"Write Razasan," she says without hesitation. "Kostroma was right. They see Myrken as being too proud, and... hah. We just pretend to be sorry and desperate enough and they'll send help."

And then he makes his case for redistribution, and her eyes widen. It is quite obvious that she hasn't even thought of that before. "... that's... that's a slippery kind of slope, Glenn. We do it once, why not again? Why not other people who see that their neighbors have more then they are, so they march in and... redistribute?" It's what she would have done a long time ago, if she'd had the ability or the thought.
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 07, 2014 1:08 pm

"It is. It's a slippery slope, so I won't decide alone." No more being alone. That's what she said. "But it'll help right a wrong. It'll help stem the tide. The people might do it either way unless we'll be accepting more than just money from Burel or Kostroma." Unless they accepted troops. "This way, we step the tide early enough that the people won't have as much of a need. It'll piss off the newly ascended, but they' weren't the problem right now, not the major one at least.

"The thing is, if we come in and do it, then it looks like the government acting, not something they're doing themselves. it means we can control it better."
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby channe » Tue Jan 07, 2014 1:15 pm

"Nobody's listening to the newly ascended right now." She presses her lips together while thinking; she shakes her head. "You could pass an emergency directive, make it just this once," she says, "and just extras, not personal items. I don't remember everything I did while under Rhaena's control, but to be honest, what I do remember looks a lot like sauntering in and thieving from people and being a general arseface about it, and this could look the same. Everything... everything has to be done right."

She takes a breath, and shakes her head. "I just don't know. There are too many variables. Whereas Razasan... we'll know what they want in return."
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 07, 2014 1:36 pm

Everything had to be done right. "Agnie. Whatever we do next, it has to be done right. There are even better ways to do this. Maybe the people who were raised up due to Rhaena weren't taxed properly. For all I know, they weren't. It's the end of the year. We can look at the books and make things work. It's like this. If this goes south, we can ask for aid from Razasan anyway." Trae Kelsa was South after all, in so many ways. "If it doesn't, then this works and lets us keep our freedom." As always, what was the point of survival if you weren't living free?
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby channe » Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:10 pm

"Okay. Okay, fine." He hasn't convinced her; there's still doubt in her eyes, but as usual, she's going to follow his lead in her own very special way. "You'll have to be seen doing it, I think. Me, as well. You gonna be up for that?"
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:12 pm

"We need to talk to other people first. I want Ariane at least to say it's a better idea than Burel or the Crown." After that though, everyone would have to be involved. "I should do the taking and you and Ariane should do the giving." He was still better off than her. Looking half starved actually helped him in this regard and he had been away for the worst of it, a victim of Rhaena as well. It only helped him so much though. Still, she needed it more than he did. That he had used the Governor's Office to provide what succor the did was, of course, another plus.
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby channe » Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:17 pm

Ariane again. "It's not a good idea, that's for sure," she says, but her voice isn't scoffing; nor is it completely happy. "Okay. That's a good idea. We do the giving." She pauses. "You're full of good ideas, Glenn. This isn't one of them. But it just might work."

She doesn't say a thing about the fact that just going to Razasan would be easier. Better, even. They'd even have troops, if they'd asked, but -- "If Razasan sends us peacekeeping troops, then Myrkener would not have to fight Myrkener, when it comes to that."

When. Not "if."
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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:19 pm

Ariane again, Ariane and Genny, maybe Treadwell since they're getting into taxes. Not Calomel. The new Myrken would be much like the old but with a wider cast of characters on top. Until someone showed him a better way, it was necessary.

"If Razasan sends troops then there isn't a Myrken anymore. Also, it means that whatever Burel is planning, it now ends up not on our doorstep but in our living room, Agnie." It was a last resort, this aid. "I almost feel like if we asked for help from one, we'd have to do it from both. It'd be a balance that would buy us some time at least."

The smile, when it returned, was weaker than before. "My idea isn't good but it's better than that."
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