The Governor's Return

Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Glenn » Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:43 am

"Then at least she lived her own life. At least she made her own choices. At least she died herself." It wasn't that he understood. He did. he'd walked that line. He'd changed the monsters when he had to, when he was at his worst, but she was looking at all of the people in Myrken Wood as monsters and maybe they were, but he had to draw the line somewhere.

"Myrken took his future, but he turned around and he made his own. It wasn't what you or I wanted for him, maybe, but it was still something. They all made their own future. They made their present. They made their lives. They pushed back against this darkness and did their best, every single day. The Ashfiend took so much from him but he turned around and fought back. That's why I fight for them, each and every one of them; that's why I stayed here. They inspired me to fight back too. They're the foundation that the future can rest upon." She believed what she said utterly. He knew that, but then so did he. "I was going to make a future where they could grow into what they might someday be, but you're taking away everything that they are. You're cutting out their heart and giving them your own."

That was Elliot, that was the others, people who were wretched or downtrodden or damned. That wasn't all she'd done though. "What about our friends, Rhae? What about Dulcie, about Nela? Your help has a price and they're the ones that pay it."
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Jirai » Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:44 am

"But she still died." And on that last word there was such a bitter twist to her tone. He'd drawn his line. She had drawn hers. They weren't yet in the same place and that was a problem. A problem these two never had.

"Myrken took his future. I gave it back. The same with the others. Myrken took Dulcie's happiness. I gave it back. 'Nela needed a friend. The children needed to learn reading and writing. Greta needed safety. I help them because they are my friends." All of them. "Isn't it worth it?"
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Glenn » Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:45 am

"Myrken took away potential options, Rhaena, but it never took away their choice. You did." Everything had become apparent to him all at once, but his mind was only processing things now. She'd sent him away, had kept him busy in Razasan. On some subconscious level, she must have known he wouldn't approve. It was ever easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission however. Because of her, his perfect golden Myrken was closer than ever, years closer, and another few months, it would be almost there. Surely, he'd see the value in that, that it was worth such a small cost as personal freedom. How different was what he did, the manipulation, the cutting off of options?

Endlessly so. There was no greater difference in the world. Now, however, his eyes narrowed for another reason. "Golben! You sent her to Golben! You had a trial without me knowing, a trial, and for what? Just to throw her away. I need to know what she did, why, how. We need to know everything or it'll just happen again, like always." It was an old wound but a deep one, an unhealed one, one that ran across his collarbone in the form of a tattoo. "You can't put your own anger over the well-being of Myrken." Before he had been talking about ideals. Now his tone was that of a boy who had his toy snatched away, no matter how well he disguised it. Others might be fooled by the bits of truth interjected within, but Rhaena Olwak knew him better than any other.
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Jirai » Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:45 am

The difference was at once both incredibly miniscule and insurmountably large. So was the single pace separating the two.

"Her? I should have done as Waldemar suggested and truly ended that threat!" She wasn't entirely sure why she hadn't, to be truthful. "She drew that creature here. She as good as murdered those children herself. Who knows what other things she's done! Yes, I sent her to Golben, so that it will NOT happen again!" Very few things truly made Rhaena angry. The Storyteller was one of them. Eleven tiny pyres. She took a deep breath before pointing out what they both knew. "You don't want her for the good of Myrken anyway, Glenn."
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Glenn » Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:49 am

Eleven tiny pyres because they had been too slow to act. Glenn felt it too. Of course he did and she well knew it, but now the creature was sent away to where they could not easily reach her (though Rhaena could reach her more easily than Glenn) and he still didn't know WHY. "Without the why, we'll never understand. Without understanding, we might have just stamped down a symptom, Rhaena." At her words, he'd gone cold to her for the first time in years, the first time perhaps since their hands met underneath a table so long ago. "I had lapses, but I'm better now and you well know it. What I do, I do for Myrken," but then hadn't she said the same before.

Now, though, now he pushed forward, his hand going for her arm, the connection between them spiking. "You're still hiding something. You're still trying to keep something from..." his voice faded off as he saw just what it was she intended to do, what and to who. "That's why. He was just a test." He understood the lapses better than anyone, just as she understood him. He understood the creeping madness, the taste of it, the look of it, and now as he stared his bethrothed down, he saw it so clearly in her. She would devour everything in her path and he knew who was first and foremost along the way. This was her place of power, though, this ball, this regal atmosphere, her cronies and servants massed in celebration of him and of her. He would stop her but he could not do it here and he could not do it alone, even if he did have to do it tonight. "No," it was all he said, shaking his head now, and though it pained him to allow this to go on even another second, he knew he had no choice. "No," he repeated, and then he was turned, walking briskly away, more briskly than she could manage in her gown. And then, he was gone.
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby catch » Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:19 pm

Perhaps we shouldn't have come.

"When I was at a Ball," Catch said, his voice low, his curled beard full of ill-advised crumbs, unable to eat the dainties in any clean or acceptable manner, "Wh-when I was at a Ball, Ser Eater, I imagined a p-p-p-place - a terrible place - with g-g-golden streets and golden t-t-towers, and th-then I saw Lady Lamai with a Faceless-th-thing, and everything, everything shattered." Airy Ann has come and gone. Catch is able to speak of the memory, now. He is able to hold it, at arm's length, and inspect it with all the scholarly interest of a Glenn.

Ser Glenn.

There, there is Ser Glenn, a fleeting. A framing-beast within a door. And Catch was glad, so glad, that he had come. He wanted to shout to the Governor, look at me, see me, in my fine clothes! see my fine horn; see how I am whole -

see how I do not cry out,
words of elder-tongue
tendrils of many-colors
a different glory-


His fine, golden clothes were littered with crumbs. Across one cheek, a line of purple, smeared there absently from a boysenberry tart, with knuckles shewing the same. Black seeds litter the innards of his teeth. It is a maggot-Glenn, but Catch still strides towards him, as implacable as he had come upon Lady Rhaena. But then he said, no. No. He did not look at Catch. The governor turned, and left, without a word, and it is his Lady, his Rhaena, that trots after him, and Catch a numbed statue, in the middle of a dance-floor.

Ser Glenn was a stone-wrought hand, and it flinched away at Catch's close fingers.

They shouldn't have come, the golden, horned man, and his gentleman's, play-scruff shadow.

The addled man slinks, wordless, back to the food-tables. He hasn't any words for the boy at his heels, or for Kals, or Kacela, brilliant sun-and-moon both.

He hides bitterness well, with sugar-spun castles.
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Cherny » Sat Jun 29, 2013 2:16 pm

The boy fusses absently at his friend's shirtfront, small familiarities of touch to brush crumbs aside, to keep Ser Catch looking splendid. All but the jam-smears, for he knows those'll just stain his fingers and anything he touches thereafter; there are linen napkins for that. Catch tells him of a past Ball, and the boy listens, frowns a little with stirred memory of fever-heat and bitter tea as he dabs at stains and smudges.

"I d-dreamed about a, a g-golden city, when I w-was sick f-from the arrow. Gold d-domes and roofs and t-towers." No; no, that's not quite right. "It w-was lots of, of cities. All g-golden in the s-sun."

Beautiful, glorious, pale and gleaming as Catch himself. He might grasp for more details, more impressions, but a stir among the lords and ladies of Myrken announces Ser Glenn's arrival, and the boy turns to see. A brief thing, an arrival and a departure mere moments after, and the boy's confusion is evident in creased brow and dark eyes that search the features of the crowd, gauging their reactions to see if this is how it was meant to be. He'd imagined that the Governor might stay longer, long enough to be greeted by those here for that express purpose.

This is not what they'd expected either, and from that he concludes that something is wrong. Ser Glenn has gone, Sera Rhaena has gone, leaving only uncertain faces and a murmur of genteel bemusement.

He nibbles at a listless dainty of sugar and fruit, but it is sickly in his throat and he leaves the thing half-eaten on the table's edge. Another glance for the crowd, still muttering over the Governor's snubbing of his own Ball, and the mill-boy's hand seeks Catch's broad paw.

"Ser C-catch - d-do you w-want to g-g-go?" Away from the gaudy colours, the stifling perfumes, the music that cannot drown the rising tide of gossip and speculation as he feels the evening sour and curdle about them.
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Duquesne » Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:22 pm

It will be at a moment along the course of the Marshall's determined strides away from festivities that she will be confronted with the architect's presence.

He made minor attempts at discretion with the manner of his entry, but had gained this elegant space without much notice. His was a face virtually unknown among the public and thus he was of no consequence, bypassing all solicitations and nearly every greeting. The man was either highly visible or not at all -- he had only begun to teach Elliot these secrets when their lessons ceased and that notorious change had occurred.

"I have never seen Myrken glitter so," he offers, here as Ariane will find herself unavoidably in his company. He is standing on the fringe, as is typical of him in his more observant moods, and green eyes are reserved in their surveillance. Perhaps only this woman will understand that the man sees somehow better with his ears. His attention moves onto her, gathering the details of her expression to confirm the demeanor he gathered from her stride. "Perhaps it glitters too much, mn?"
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Guppy » Sat Jun 29, 2013 4:29 pm

He spoke of fear and darkness and she gazed at him with an uncertain, dubious expression. "You do not fear It and It does not suffer any lack of power for it," she mentioned, casually. Reminding him of that. "I do not fear It, but I do fear what It could do to those I care for." She did not often admit such things to others, but they tended to slip out when he spoke with her. His complete attention was something she cherished and his vibrant smile made color bloom upon her cheeks. She moved to nudge him lightly to chastise him for making her flush.

His laugh made a fond smile slip across her features and she worried, somewhere deep without her, if she weren't taking advantage of him in this state. Just as he had accused her, before. It silenced the thought in an instant. The girl deserved a little of this. Even if It expected it all to come crashing down around her ears before too long.

"You often gifted everyone in the tavern with a plate of duck. It was delicious." Her goal was to remind him of his past until something managed to stick. His question about dancing was met with a begrudging sigh and a short nod. "We will learn to dance, but you will have to promise me something," coaxed softly as the two drifted upon the dance floor to practice what was the first of likely many dances to come. Two lovely young people taking the floor together. Rhaena would be pleased, no doubt. "You also have to let me take you hunting. Maybe have a little fun, too. Not everything is duty, Elliot."

Her eyes lifted and took note of the Governor storming from the room. She sought to draw Elliot's attention that way as well with a little nudge.
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Carnath-Emory » Sat Jun 29, 2013 5:37 pm

She'd learned, gradually and over time, to anticipate this. Having become accustomed to the way in which - during quiet moments, charged moments; moments with weight - her eyes might glimpse the subtle sweep of coat-skirts that announces a man's particular presence. Having become acquainted with features attuned to the changing rhythms of her heart, all too aware of the moment in which the breath might stutter and stall within her lungs. She'd learned.

And yet when his voice arrests her very deliberate departure, the look she lifts towards him is so clearly unprepared.

How long had he roamed amongst all these nameless, empty faces? How long and how far? She wonders; will ask, hours or days from now. But there were three reasons for which she asked his company, on this very unusual night. Three particular causes, and one of them had already proved unnecessary, but the rest -

"Do you see, then?" And it is pale eyes lifted towards his own, a grey glance turned back across her shoulder then, back towards all the delicate finery that a Governor had furiously abandoned. "Not even him," although the Governor's abrupt departure was just as much a statement as her own presence had been, all dark, hard corners and very present steel. "Not even how she ran," Rhaena Olwak, the Governor's lady, breathtaking in the midst of her design.

"Them," and with a tilt of her narrow chin towards young Cherny, small under any circumstances; dwarfed in the midst of this. How it swallows him, how seems to consume. Towards the luminous beauty that is wild Catch; towards the wealth of creamy fabric and hair scrubbed 'til it shone like spun gold. Towards the whole of it, for all that Treadwell is precisely what one expects of the man, and Kals and Kacela are every inch themselves, but: "Elliot," she murmurs at the last, and quietly, now. Quietly, when she turns her eyes his way.
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Rance » Sun Jun 30, 2013 1:18 am

And the boot-blacker blacked
as other things blacked--
a governor and lady
and the bliss of the night
sacrificed for this:
lover's quarrels.

Battlefields were cleaner; crusades of one religion against another
or spats of brother against brother,
for blades were sharp and fine
and morals not so precise, but sloppy
(unclean)
like rusted knives dragged across the skin
and shards of splintering metal left
to fester.

This was governorship?

And when the crowds dispersed, and when the unrehearsed
disturbance
fell silent;
when the torchlit paths went scarce
and tradesmen, perfume-girls, and jewel-makers retreated
the boot-blacker still blacked
with his black-night hands
and boot-black palms--

His own boots, this time.

And the boot-blacker blacked
as other things blacked--
a governor and lady
and the bliss of the night
sacrificed for this:
a governor's quarrels.

Myrken Wood had never changed.
That, at least, was a comfort.
A familiarity.

And so were dark and light marbles.
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Dulcie » Sun Jun 30, 2013 2:10 am

The wild woman nudged Kals slightly. She had been quiet for most of the ball, apart from the times when she had to interract with someone to get more food. That didn't mean however, that she was blind to what was going on. Many women in fancy dress, the interactions that happened between all the people.

And then there was Glenn, coming and then going and Rhaena off behind him.

She sniffed at the air and shifted her gaze over towards Kals. She didn't need words for him to know that she thought there was something not right between her sister-in-law and the Glenn Burnie.
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Duquesne » Sun Jun 30, 2013 10:15 am

He had been watching from the privacy of his anonymous state, had moved thoughtfully among strangers to note the manners of those in attendance. Many were without names; many had not previously been seen; a few beside were known by either acquaintance or reputation. There was one who wore stars and the visage of a wolf, and with him a woman who wore the sun but no shoes at all. The man had studied her for a time, this nameless woman, and something in her action suggested -- he was not entirely sure, but instinct murmured of some heightened sensory state and some nameless presence beside.

He had observed the distraction of the golden Catch, identifying him by detail in the same way he identified the governor's lady, and had been attentive to the interaction between them. Elliot's presence in the moment intrigued, as had Cherny's intervention, and sensitive ears had sorted the sounds of their commentary, even from where he stood.

And of course time had been spent upon the fringes, upon those whose tendency was -- like him -- to observe festivities but not necessarily join them -- a fellow in black, at the wall, listed among that number. And he spied the girl, elegantly clad and out of place in such attire, alone and privately agitated.

Until Elliot joined her.

And that is the interaction he attended most diligently, apart from the peculiar arrival and departure of Glenn Burnie. When it occurred, the architect had quietly moved his position to afford a clear line of sight, for this is the first glimpse of the governor in some years. Alas, it was too short a moment and yet his brief appearance offers its own insight.

The Marshall has asked now, Do you see? And the man, attentive in his observation of her now, will not follow her gaze as she looks on those she indicates. "I have seen them," he murmurs, turning an appreciative gaze over her while her attention is engaged elsewhere... and yet were she to look on him in time, she might catch his appraisal. When he moves at last, it is to offer his spine a moment's straightening before he settles into a composed posture and sinks thumbs behind the breadth of one of two steel buckles slung low -- the latter being off-center and surely belonging to another purpose besides the obvious. Dusty boot-soles shift to slightly widen his stance and green eyes stir now to Elliot and the girl he attends, then move with intention to look on the noble Catch and little Cherny. "Gaiety has evaporated for some, yet promises increase for others." He looks at her, a closeness in the nature of his gaze, and a subtle humor grows at one edge of his mouth. "Were you leaving, so soon? I had hoped to press you for a dance, Marshall."
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Carnath-Emory » Mon Jul 01, 2013 12:08 pm

There'll be questions, hours from now. Questions and answers, the years-long constant of those evenings they've spent together, but never with focus like this. "I would have you to look," she'd said - days ago. "I would have you see - in the way that you know how to see; I would have you see all those things I'd never notice, the things I know only as instinct."

She might have failed, in the end, to guess at the moment of his approach - but there was no mistaking the work of aviseful eyes. Not when the man stretched his talented gaze past the edge of her shoulder and towards the banquet-hall's expanse. Not even when he made his focus this uniform's clean lines, made a study of its tall collar, stately shoulders; the way a sleeve fastens back to the elbow, to accommodate a bracer's intricate gleam. Perhaps his thoughts linger a moment upon the paler fabric hid beneath, make a study of the intricate stitches that Gloria had worked into the delicate cloth, these dizzying fractals of embroidery. She'd come darkly-clad into the heart of all this lush finery, came here looking like death and absolutely knew it -

How inevitable, then, that his suggestion startles.

"I cannot walk one step here," she murmur - quietly now, so quietly - "without feeling I tread upon its hidden walls. Golben," she breathes, and it is barely any sound at all. "Labyrinths," and she's cast a glance back past her own shoulder, fills her eyes with the crush of all that raw beauty -

"Will you?" And it's something like assent, when she lifts her eyes back towards his; it's something like soundless laughter worked into the corners of her mouth, the grim, hard defiance with which we laugh at the gallows' edge. Light like summer breezes, the hand which touches to his shoulder, but at her hip steel's poised like a cold gleam; she is the contradiction she's always been, a weapon which means to temper itself with a moment's humanity. "Set my heart at ease.

"Before I go to do the things which I must do."
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Re: The Governor's Return

Postby Duquesne » Sat Jul 06, 2013 8:45 am

Labyrinths, she said. Golben. They had discussed it, and yet the matter had been obscure because he had not known the true nature of the place. As details had emerged, however, his sentiments began to change. The edges of his mouth tighten subtly she when offers the name.

"Let us distract ourselves from grave matters," he murmurs, loosening his hand from his steel buckle and offering it to her. And there are no gloves tonight, no expensive leather to mask the scars he had earned by his perseverance. When she takes his hand, his fingers will close upon hers and the structure of his face will soften with familiar subtlety.

Thus to the floor where others continue their merriment, to the music that continues to play despite the noted absence of honored governor and elegant hostess. And the architect, who would traditionally dress to suit the occasion, has instead dressed to suit the woman beside him who has made herself the image of some precious murder.

"When the dust clears," he says, slowing in his step and drawing her around to face him, "and all these matters are reasonably solved, we have a holiday to attend." His other hand will rise to her waist as he takes a single slow step to reduce the space between them, and then he will lead her into their dance. "Not just one -- we cannot forget the Festival of Lights this year."
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