Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Glenn » Thu Jul 11, 2013 6:27 am

"Well, Miss Ford?" The Man in White did not even have the dignity of bags beneath his eyes. The circuit of tale and told within him would not allow for that. His fatigue was entirely mental, and that was only exacerbated by the dynamo that was his mind. His rest had been anything but. His dreams plagued him even during the waking hours. He longed for shadows and had only light.

Mary Ford shared Genny Tolleson's red hair but it wasn't quite as vivid. It curled no matter what she did, and tying it up just seemed to add an undue burden to all of the world's string. She wasn't nearly as capable or interesting an attache. Still, this was Burnie's Myrken, whether it be Glenn or Rhaena Burnie. Giuseppe would make do with what he had. "There was fire, and fire, and fire, and then there was tea. And the cup drawing with the letters. I don't know what the letters mean, but it was definitely a teacup!"

"Oh," he said with a little scowl, "to hear you think out loud. It's like the sound of doves fornicating. The first fire, yes? The spier one, isn't connected, likely not at least. The Constabulary will run in that direction on their own. Remind me to stop and see the Fae at some point though. Sometime next week maybe. It's nothing to look forward to. I'd send you but you'd probably end up seduced and the mental image of that is too chilling by far, you see."

Mary saw Giuseppe with visitors, with other inquisitors, around town. She was the only female he wasn't outright charming to. Sometimes, the facade broke. It had to. Unfortunately, it broke all over her head. "So what do you want me to do?" Sometimes, she knew, that was the best thing to ask.

"Have Tennant, Genny's brother if you don't remember, summoned." He didn't know. He couldn't know. He shouldn't act, not like this, not yet, not without permission, but he suspected. The fire had nipped his heels twice now. Twice. It had come back for him. It had eaten his shadows until they had no where else to go. He had no certainty but he had a suspicion. He could act upon it in two ways. "After I speak with him, I will go to fortify the teahouse. There's good reason to think it the arsonist's next target." And of course, fortify the teahouse was Myrken's most wonderful euphemism. "You're welcome to come, Ford. No? Alright then, get to it."

He waved her off dismissively and rubbed at his eyes. Damn this curse for not letting him look as miserable as he felt. Damn this energy for not letting him roll up in a ball as he wanted to. Damn Rhaena Olwak for most things and damn himself for everything else.
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Re: Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Tolleson » Thu Jul 11, 2013 8:19 am

Even for a pauper the tallest redhead in town looked nothing short of dapper. It wasn’t the finest fabrics, but there was not a patch in sight; he was clean shaven, hair washed, and for the first time in recallable history, combed. Also apparent was that he had wasted no time in answering Miss Mary’s summons.

Whatever task he had been hard at work accomplishing for Miss Dulcie’s Inn he’d dropped immediately and come straight away. Having been a frequent enough guest of the former occupant he knew on which door to knock, and if let in, which chair to take, and how to sit there unmoving and uncomfortable.
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Re: Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Glenn » Thu Jul 11, 2013 8:53 am

"It's nicer, isn't it?" This from Giuseppe, who was smiling, was glad in white, was sitting upon Burnie's old chair, the desk neater than it had been in ages. "your chair. I had it brought in especially. I think to myself, Giuseppe, why must we make people suffer doubly, for anyone in that chair already has some suffering ahead of them? So I think, why not suffer in comfort?" It was a new regime in so many ways. In Rhaena's Myrken, appearances were often so much more important than reality. It was true here too, it seemed.

There were other choices for this, or there should have been, Solena or even the Brown boy. One had been squandered and the other alienated irrevocably in the squandering. He worked with what he had and what they had was Tennant. It was a cunning disguise perhaps. Who would think a down on his luck dishwasher with impossible-to-miss red hair would also have his own illicit skills. "From my estimation we're almost to the year and a half anniversary of you going down into the lake to find Catch's horn. I think we ought commemorate it. It was an accomplishment, yes?"

It was friendly enough. Perhaps he had a special trophy made for Tennant, something nice that could go on a mantle. That was never the way it worked for him, though, was it? "Your lady has a task for you. She's asked me to explain it. You might want to make sure your feet are firmly set on the ground."
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Re: Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Tolleson » Thu Jul 11, 2013 9:28 am

Having slid into the chair almost automatically, he was, in fact, pleasantly surprised. “I suppose it depends on your purpose Mister Man-In-White… Giuseppe is it? Or do you prefer High Inquisitor.” That last bit wasn’t really a question, but a testament to the rumors he was inclined to hear. Sure, she could dress him up but the cheek still remained, maybe she even liked it a little bit.

As for suffering ahead, that was nothing new and certainly no surprise. But then he mentioned the lake and one of those red eyebrows rise. His experience in the lake wasn’t exactly pleasant, so it did seem oddly appropriate. Still, he wouldn’t answer the rhetorical question – it was a growing trend in their conversations.

“What may I do for the lady?” The words simply came out, with complete understanding and natural as ever, without restraint. No bargaining or lip, no request to reduce his sentence or squabbling over what might be in it for him. He simply sat and looked on to the assuredly unfriendly face behind the ‘friendly enough’ voice of the Man-In-White.
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Re: Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Glenn » Thu Jul 11, 2013 1:10 pm

"My purpose is the well-being of Myrken Wood, of course. Just like Burnie. I was his associate for a time, yes?" Associate was a kind word for it but then Tennant knew all about those sorts of words. "Now, I am High Inquisitor until he returns, maybe after that too. We'll see what sort of word Lady Burnie puts in for me." He couldn't help but say that name with a little grin. He'd been there for the wedding, or the lack of such. Appearance was what mattered now, though, and Rhaena Olwak decided upon appearance.

Look at how she decided upon Tenant's, inside and out. He was such a good little soldier. "Your task was unfinished and we could all suffer for it. Catch has his horn," and he would let that sit out there for a moment, for a nice long moment. "It makes him, how do you say? Ah, bold. It makes him bold and it makes him dangerous," there was a rising intensity in his voice, an energy that he could not well stop, that he could not well repress or control, but there were certain realities that he also could not forget, that also helped him control it, for if he didn't, the cost to him would be anything.

"You're to retrieve it."
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Re: Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Tolleson » Thu Jul 11, 2013 8:19 pm

A better soldier could only be made if Rhaena hadn’t been so flattered by Tennant’s insatiable flirting and glibness. That or it had been an obvious oversight on her part.

“Yes, yes. I imagine the pay and perks aren’t bad either, do you get your own teahouse girl?” Rhetorical? Or perhaps he was in the market for a new job and wanted to assess the benefits with as much sarcasm as he could muster.

“Climbing the ladder I see. Yes, I recall how close you two were,” not that he’d ever really been witness to Giuseppe’s duties, thankfully, being a willing prisoner and all. And while the words weren’t spoken, the thought certainly occurred that ‘when’ Glenn Burnie returned was a rather presumptuous statement, where ‘if’ might be better suited. But then again, these were the sorts of rumors that had been flying.

It all mattered so very little to Tennant.

Straightening his back and shifting ever so slightly in the now, entirely-too-comfortable chair, Tennant leaned forward as if being closer might lend him some more useful information on the matter of Catch.

“Catch is no small man, and you say the possession of they very item you wish for me to retrieve makes him more bold?” That was certainly a polite way to ask Tennant to commit the very crime he had been detained for in the first place. The expression on Tennant’s face was amused, but hardly impudent.

“Well enough,” even if all sane reasoning and experience told him to refuse, he very simply could not.
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Re: Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Glenn » Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:14 am

It was so nice to have agreeable people to call upon. It was something that someone could get used to. It was something that the Man in White could get used to and that was a terrible thing and he knew it. It was a tragedy, one of many. Very few people were actively afflicted by Rhaena Olwak's touch. The rest of them, a large brunt of town, were far more affected by what she could offer them. It was temptation not coercion for the grand lot, which was how Giuseppe waned it. It was a bit embarrassing to admit his place in that balance.

Throwing Tennant to the proverbial wolves, however, well, that was something else entirely. He could even do it with a smile. "I would call it more of a, let us a say, a visitor's pass, yes? To the teahouse. I have to stop by there after this for purely professional reasons." Of course there was his profession and then there was their profession. All of it was professional, no?

"The ladder fell on me." That he would admit though he'd let Tennant think what he would about it. Apparently when it was lifted back up, Giuseppe was still hanging on. Apparently.

For now though the red-head was voicing his pointless misgivings. "Ahh, Tolleson. I am not saying that you are to go up to Catch and yank it from him. He has it. He needs to not have it. You have skills use them. Slink in and steal it in the middle of the night. Befriend him and use guile and cunning. Do.. well, something. Make a game of it with him. I do not know. I have my skills, you have yours. This is what makes Myrken dance round and round in Rhaena's little Ball. Do not let him know that you were told to do this. If you can't get it then confuse and confound him in your attempts. If he's not lessened as a threat, then he should at least be embroiled in a cat and mouse game with you. And do try not to die." That about summed it up. He hardly saw room for any other questions. Instead the Man in White just looked at Tennant expectantly, waiting for him to leave.
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Re: Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Tolleson » Fri Jul 12, 2013 4:41 am

There was agreeable and then there was downright placated. And while Rhaena’s, ever so gentle, nudges were mere suggestions and minor rewrites to the nature of a select few, the total effect was rather immense. Ale drinking in Myrken had come to an all time low, children ate their vegetables, sluts became prim and proper whores, and soon all horses would shit gold and piss sparkling wine. The ladder hadn’t fallen upon him, it had been wielded with a graceful force that struck him and pinned him down. No man was better suited to be so righteous and yet so low. The corruption was almost as evident as the farm girls in silk and tea in the tavern. Unfortunately, it did sum things up. Rather succinctly. There were still dozens of questions about ladders and madmen, but truly, pointless misgivings.

Professional reasons. Giuseppe and he were far more alike in profession than he and Glenn ever were. To this he grinned, easily comprehending the networking opportunities that might arise with teahouse girls despite whatever actual work The Man in White had there.

“Thank you for the lesson,” his sarcasm was bland as he stood, he might have been offended if it wasn’t more amusing that he was soon to be a Myrken endorsed thief. It was some comfort to know that even someone like him had a place in her perfect little town. Even dainty ladies had to get their hands dirty, try as she might to think otherwise – with any luck the obedient glove that he had become would not too easily be discarded. ‘Try not to die,’ the only solid piece of advice.
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Re: Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Glenn » Fri Jul 12, 2013 6:37 am

Tennant's view was a bit skewed but then it ought to be. He was one of the Favored. He wore a pin. He also had less pushing than some, certainly not the planted seed treatment of Elliot Brown or Ariane Emory. Rhaena experimented with those she actually liked. Dulcie's personality wasn't wildly changed but her inclinations and even her primal and basic needs were. Tennant was changed in completely different ways. It was one thing that Kals Olwak likely found would have found frustrating in restoring people even if he hadn't the bad fortune to start with Elliot, with whom there was nothing to restore.

Try not to die and do not implicate us in this. Simple things really. The corollary was that if you had to choose between dying and implicating Rhaena in this, death would be preferable, but there was no reason to say such uncomfortable things to a man in a comfortable chair.

"Good luck then. If you need resources, do let me know. Within reason, they can likely be obtained. If one of them happens to be a teahouse girl, I'll be glad to look the other way."
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Re: Dousing the Flames: Proactive Protection

Postby Tolleson » Fri Jul 12, 2013 9:37 am

What Rhaena said or had done to him, could he even remember? Do as she asked? It was so subtle a thing, to never refuse her? Perhaps it was recently, several days unaccounted for or a lingering presence of her in his mind from his sojourn in the depths of the lake.

Never betray her, try not to die. The first always before the second. Such things need not be said, it was understood.

Standing now with his hand upon the door he gave a small pause considering the offer of the teahouse. Giuseppe offered what resources he could and in return, Tennant’s grin is sportive, as if the weight of the task ahead bore no influence on his mood.

“How generous,” though truth be told he had an open invitation from Petronela herself. Still, he left the offer of resources open, the reply neutral in words and tone; providing a cordial enough nod before departing. If the High Inquisitor needed him further he knew well enough where to find him.
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