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Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:21 pm
by channe
Ah. Genny and Treadwell, both of them effective but harmless enough. Ariane, though -- she'd admired the woman a long time ago, and then disliked her, and now admires her again. And she's the same, she thinks -- the exact same, only with darkness instead of silver in her veins, and why is it Ariane that gets the admiration, the respect? Why not Agnieszka Kaczmarek? Gloria had asked her, in similar wordings, why she was so loyal to Glenn -- and is this not it? Glenn, who supports her unquestioningly, has earned it. So she repays him in kind, as best as she can. They haven't always had this kind of relationship, but at least the barest latticework is in place. If she stays after winter passes, Glenn will be one reason why.

"I have good ideas. I have really good ideas. I maintain that asking for help is one of them. And -- and okay," she says, finally -- "But you know this is gonna backfire, right? You, taking things, yourself, from very powerful people? I can hardly protect you now -- I can hardly protect myself -- so we'll just have to fix things as they come, I guess."

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:22 pm
by Glenn
She had to understand that it was really a give and take. No, of course she didn't. She didn't have to understand anything. She was who she was and she would understand what she would and of the things she didn't choose to understand or couldn't understand, she'd probably have a perfectly valid counterpoint and two or three utterly invalid ones. It WAS a give and take though. He was coming up with policy with her. He was discussing these things with her and maybe that was new. Maybe before he tossed her in this direction or that or she came to him with this problem she saw or that, but this was a different sort of collaboration. It was the sort that he had promised two years before when he bought back her soul and gave her the job in the first place.

Unfortunately, so much had happened since then.

"If I have to choose between the people and the power, Agnie, I'm going to choose the people. They need to see that. They need to have someone choose them. Everything backfires, it's Myrken. The only way we're going to protect ourselves, and thus everyone else, is by being proactive."

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:23 pm
by channe
"But you don't get it," she says, and it's almost annoyed. "You can't choose between the people and the power because we don't have any freakin' power right now." And then -- his whole point kind of dawns on her, and she bites her bottom lip. "... okay. Well."

She pauses, letting the implications sink in.

"... you know, this is an awful thing to say, Glenn, but I kind of wish we had something we could unite the province against. Something... something that wasn't going to hurt them, but they didn't have to know that..."

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:25 pm
by Glenn
There was power in the people. They could rechannel it. There was power in money. They could grab it quickly and severely. There was power in the gaps between what was and what could be. He was good at faking power when he couldn't take it.

She said something else though and he couldn't help but nod. "Yeah. Yeah, Agnie. You're right. And a year ago, I'd make it happen. We would, we could. Right now? Right now even I don't have that much bullshit in me."

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:27 pm
by channe
A moment's bare guilt -- it seems, she thinks, that she's gone so far past what Gloria wished her not to do. Lies, lies -- but here, discussing the safety of the people, the full bellies and the prevention of any more deaths, it seems like such a small thing to do. After all, she thinks, what government actually tells the truth? They certainly hadn't done that in the bright towers of Razasan.

"You don't have much in you at all," she says, looking like her mother for the barest of moments. "You been eating?"

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:30 pm
by Glenn
It was proof positive of his current condition. Maybe the starvation was bad. Maybe losing his ironclad control over Myrken was worse. Maybe losing Rhaena was the worst of all. Maybe, though, maybe it was that his unstable hand had been the cause of almost all of it. Maybe it was that instead.

Regardless, it wasn't the lie he was concerned about. It was his ability to pull it off successfully. He felt it pulling at him, tugging at him, but as of yet, he couldn't afford to be concerned about the lie. Finally, he sighed. "More and more everyday. My body isn't cooperating. I'm not as young as I was last time." That there even was a last time was a bad sign. How much could one body go through? His had been through so much, even though he was certainly no older than her.

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:31 pm
by channe
Maybe the starvation was bad? Of course it was bad. Agnie just blinks at him. "None of us are," she says. "And this is why you need to stay out of trouble. And eat. Where's that nurse of yours? Can't she get something for you to eat? I bet she makes really kickass soup. Good when you haven't eaten for a while." She looks around, fails to find anyone, and then looks back to Glenn.

Her eyes are damned serious.

"Whatever we're going to do, we need to do it very soon. As soon as possible."

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:33 pm
by Glenn
"I think I drove the nurse to a nunnery in Ghreu Fenn." It didn't help that he said it so deadpan. It didn't help that she couldn't find anyone either. "I'm not so bad, Agnie. I'm not. I'm better everyday. It's just, well, you know, right? The whole death thing you've never fully explained. I don't remember all of it, but I was in her head when she died." It was hard to recover from that; that he had been starving just made it all the worse. "And then there's Audmathus. Golben's a shitstorm." He didn't continue on to tell her that maybe she should have stabbed him two years ago. He was thinking it though, albeit not too loudly. If it was a good idea then...

"Some day, Agnie, I'll sit down and tell you what happened there, and you'll sit down and tell me about death, because I think eventually we do get those memories back and when we do, I'm going to remember it for myself."

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:33 pm
by channe
"Well, get another one," she snaps, sounding suspiciously like her mother. "Or --" Oh. Here it comes. "I'll send my mother here. You know, that sounds like an excellent idea. She will make sure you get better. I'm sure you'll agree."

And then she quiets, and thinks about what he's saying, and folds her hands on her lap where she's sitting. "You have got to walk forward," she says, her voice near-silent and serious. "You cannot sit here and feel sorry for yourself. This is how I got through Aeryn and this is how I got through Jozef and this is how I got through the fucking Tower. It's not roses and it's not nice, but you can't sit there in your head like this."

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:34 pm
by Glenn
"Your mother would make a terrible Ghreu Fenn nun." Glenn sighed quietly, shutting his eyes as he leaned back into his bed. Her next words, serious as they were, made him laugh. "Agnie, first you tell me that I need to rest up and get better and then you tell me to walk around town. I think, and I have had plenty of time to think, even when I didn't want it. I always think.I can't shut it off. Not even with drink, you know. That just makes me think harder." She didn't know and it was okay. Very few people understood what it was like to be eaten alive by one's own mind. "I have to move forward because everyone's relying on me." And maybe that's why he wasn't running. "It's a balance though. I can't just ignore it all either. That's so tempting but I spent years barely feeling anything at all. I'm not going back to that," even if it killed him. What was life without feeling?

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:36 pm
by channe
"I didn't mean don't feel anything. It's not the same thing, sometimes getting up and going means eating your damn soup."

But she looks away now; she's done with advice. She's shit with advice, always has been, always will be. "Okay. So. You want to talk to Ariane, and we'll get this done, then?"

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:46 pm
by Glenn
She's shit with advice, but she cared. Maybe that's why he opened up to her like he did. Probably not, though. It was Glenn. He was still Glenn. He probably opened up because he knew she could only do so much with it. It was a calculated risk. What wasn't these days? He was tired though, beginning to repeat himself. He was fighting not to be alone now that the presence he had in his mind and heart for so long as gone. "And Genny, probably. I'm not sure who else I can even talk to about all of this. Maybe Treadwell just to cross some t's. I'm not getting Cinnabar more involved than he has to." All he had asked of Calomel was to buy him time to save HER.

She had come in wanting the truth. She had come in wanting to run. At her most generous she'd even come in wanting him to run with her. How would she leave?

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:48 pm
by channe
"Treadwell's an ass, but he's your ass -- for now." And then she claps her hand over her mouth, realizing just what she's said, and manages a strangled little giggle. "Maybe that butthead Woburn, the chief constable. If you can trust him, that is. He'll be able to keep a finger on who's saying what and believing what."

She pauses. "Dominik. You can trust Dominik. But then, he'll not be of a lot of help to you."

She may still run, after all. It is winter; running would be cold. Dangerous. Not so a few months from now -- but then, he'd know that.

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:50 pm
by Glenn
At one point it used to be so simple. If you wanted the mob off your back, just talk to Dom and give them a nice public works project. Times had changed and much for the worse. A famine of both the body and mind would do that. Still... "Talk to Dom. Make sure we're not missing anything you and I can't see. I'll talk to Ari." and one of them would talk to Genny, hard to say which. Glenn wasn't sure what she really felt about Agnie but it was important he kept her in the loop. "In the meantime, I'll get better, and you'll stay safe and we'll act soon. Thanks for coming, Agnie. And for trying. I know what it's like here. You put your neck out and the worst things happen to it."

Re: Plans for the upcoming winter.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 07, 2014 2:51 pm
by channe
"I can do that." She pauses, and then pushes back on her heels and stands. He's dismissed her. She doesn't like being dismissed, but this is what is, she reminds herself. Being dismissed, and being beholden to Glenn for sticking his neck out for her two years ago, for retrieving what she couldn't retrieve herself -- and the hunger gnawing at her stomach. "And yes. Let's make it soon. Or I'm gonna have Catch shot with an arrow through the neck."