Patronage

Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:00 am

Perhaps that was the point. To spell it out. To have him say it. Maybe then he'll see how utterly ludicrous it sounds, coming from him. Oh, this is not the first offer of patronage she's had. A little girl like her, in charge of a place like this? Of course they've tried to roll her over. But of course they've never been successful.

Ever wonder why, Elliot?

"You're the way to the top," she says, in an almost disbelieving tone. "You. Little Smelliot Brown, who used to pick his nose at pie-making contests. You, who obviously can't get laid unless you play like you're a toff at the teahouse. You aren't the first idiot to ask me this sort of shit, Brown. I expect it from the stuffed-shirts uptown; I don't expect it from someone like you. Someone who knows just how hard it can be." Her eyes are flint; she stands abruptly, and motions for the girl to come over and clear the tray. "I'm not a madam. It doesn't work that way. My girls can say no. Is that it? You afraid of being rejected even by teahouse girls? Feel you gotta take it out, wave it around to feel like you're a man? Lord it over honest businesspeople that you got power? Pathetic. G'wan. Get the hell out of here."
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:09 am

He choked on the tea and it was damn lucky for both of them that he didn't spit it in her face in surprise.

"First of all. The reason you ain't never seen me around here is because I don't need none of your flooz..." He grit his teeth, regaining composure. Professional. Business. This was business and he was better than this. She fell to name calling. He was better. "I don't need your girls to say yes. People have wanted me to come with them here and I say no because it's not my idea of.." of what? Of love? That word that Galacia had tossed at him. "Not my idea of how courtship should go. I got nothing against it if someone wants that, because people can want what they want, but it's not what I want. I want to do it proper." Which of course explains why he spends his days with Niall and his nights with Nova, why he admitted to Galacia that he wanted them both.

"I mean it, you twitwit. I'm all set in the girl department. All. Set. You hear stuff, don't you? All set. Couldn't be more set." Pick his nose, she said. "I don't care that you grew up to be ten times prettier than your older sister what that every boy kind of fancied in their own way what when she went off and joined the Brotherhood. You got your head on so far backward about this that I'm not sure I can tell your pretty face from your pretty arse. I don't want free rein on your girls! Maybe a smile or two since we're friends would be nice and polite, but just that. Maybe if they want to pick up some diversionary work that they'd get well paid for, if they wanted, sure. Maybe some information that you and me could share between us, absolutely. A room to duck into, now and again, unoccupied, and I went to you because you're REAL, not like everyone else around here, but apparently all you are is a real arseface." He was on his feet now. "Thinking the worst of me when I was trying real hard not to think any bad of you!"
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Wed Feb 06, 2013 6:09 am

She blinks.

And blinks again.

She waves the girl away from the tea-set. "If that's all you want," she says, quietly, "than I suppose something can be arranged. A room every so often, information shared, that's all fine. But you could have just asked." Her eyes are set flinty-steel, her jaw held tight. "You could have just said, like a decent man, rather than acted like all the other bastards what want to, quote, protect me." A pause. "How d'you expect me to be real, when you ain't actin' real yourself? How can I expect anything you tell me to be true?"

She then tilts her head. "Apologize for callin' me an arseface, you butt-nose, and we gots a deal."
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Wed Feb 06, 2013 6:17 am

More gawking. She deserved it.

"Because we're professionals! That's the whole point. We dug ourselves out from.. from dirt farming! You and me. We're adults and professionals and there's a way of doing business and I thought you'd understand that. It's not my fault that you get approached by a bunch of arse-faces and you don't even pay attention to what you hear about me." Elliot wasn't quite capable of pulling back. "This was supposed to be a good thing. We got roots, you and me, shared roots. I figured we could help each other, maybe help look after each other if stuff got bad."

He was cooling down a little. This was supposed to be a good thing. Didn't she get that? Maybe she did now, but it was all he could do to take a breath. "I'm not them. You're not them." A glance around, though if he was referring to other madams or just other people dressed as nicely as she was in Myrken, it was hard to say. " That's why you expect what I say to be true. Doesn't mean that we're not professional, that we're not good at what we do. I don't want a girl who has to say yes, Petronela Kaczmarek. I want a friend. A business friend. I don't think neither of us have too many of those, not really."

One thing that Elliot Brown was learning real quick was that it was good to have options, that one could maybe have his cake and eat it to, so long as he was good and clever and quick enough.
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Fri Feb 08, 2013 5:46 am

Now, her hands go to her hips, and her face clouds up. "You call this professional? Professional is, hey, you come in here, give me some money, I give you some tea and a sandwich and a room. That's how things go in business. Yeah, we got roots, Elliot, and I appreciate that, but you gotta realize, as a businesswoman I can't be beholden to interests just because they want to drop me money every month, even if I trust 'em," she says. "Have you thought o' what it might look like? If someone sees you come in here and duck into a room?" Has he?

She drops her hands and then looks back down at the tea. "So let's be friends. But let's be friends because we want to be friends, not because you're droppin' money in my pocket and you expect somethin' in return. Sound good to you?"
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Fri Feb 08, 2013 7:26 am

Maybe professional for her and professional for him were two different things. Maybe it was professional for her to do what she just said too, just she didn't have to because she had support from somewhere else. He didn't know any of that. "What'll they think? They'll think that.. that I'm a man of refined taste and high whatever." He'd almost managed his way through the sentence. "It's the teahouse, Nela. Yes, you're high class, but that doesn't mean that you're not what you are, right? It's not a bad thing, no more than me being what I am, but that's what professional is to us."

Part of him braced for a slap there. If she tried it, he'd take it. He wasn't being angry or upset. No hands on hips, just a little frown. Maybe he'd been playing at grown up but that he was doing things the right way and she was pissed off about it wasn't his fault. It was the fault of the business itself. "Hey, Nela," his voice softened a bit. She was far from home. "You don't have to answer this but," he looked around, remembering how that first girl had reacted to the Kaczmarek. "you have a lot of friends around here, real ones?"
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:37 am

There is no slap. She is not her sister, for all that every Kaczmarek resembles another. And that last bit? It stings. Agnie, of course, is her friend; and she can count at least three of the teahouse girls as staunch sisters-in-arms. And then, the big one, the one that began all of this -- and she has no reason to doubt him. Theirs has been a productive friendship, and what Elliott proposes is such a pale imitation it really wants to make her laugh. Finally, she taps her fingers on the table, and tilts her head to one side.

"Okay, let's talk terms. You want a place to hide. Food if you need it. You want me to feed you what I hear now and again. Information is valuable to me, too. You know that. What's your side?"
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Wed Feb 13, 2013 7:23 am

No one knew. No one knew where Nela got the funds to do this, where she got the funds to look the part. It's Myrken and she was a Kaczmarek so some people thought that maybe she was just ballsy enough to step up and take charge of an already successful enterprise. She had needed money to begin with though. That was just logical. It wasn't like Elliot Brown to think up such questions though.

She was talking business again and he grinned, despite himself. "If someone's giving a girl of yours trouble, I can help. If someone takes something that belongs to you, or tries to, I can help. If there's something you want, but you can't get, something special or one of a kind, I can help." And that one was spoken a bit coy. He'd steal for her. Gifts even. The rogueling took good care of his friends. "And I hear things too, different things than you do. And a monthly donation to show my appreciation of the prettiest, most successful Myrken girl in town." He said it with a straight face, full of confidence and poise. His acting skills had gotten better somewhere along the way, and well they should have.
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Wed Feb 13, 2013 8:39 am

"The girls... well, that might come in handy," she says, leaning back in consideration. For all her cojones, Petronela Kaczmarek is still a slight-looking thing, not the sword-bearing terror that her older sister has become, and certainly not the sly-looking, muscled Dominik. She'll not mention it to Elliot, though.

If he's heard enough, he'll know that she came across the place as a windfall. Cambree Calomel had resigned, literally dropping the teapots in the street for anyone to take. Petronela Kaczmarek had just been in the right place at the right time. She did, however, get much richer far more quickly than usual.. but perhaps, that's just the nature of her business?

"Okay," she says, "it's a deal. For now." A pause, as she drains the rest of her teacup. "As long as you're a real friend and you cut it out with the blathering about how I'm the 'prettiest' and stuff. I do not fall for that." She did not, after all, own a castle. Or dresses from Razasan.
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Wed Feb 13, 2013 2:55 pm

Elliot Brown had been bulkier years ago when he was a squire. Now he was lithe and athletic, now he was made to run and jump an climb, for balance and poise. He was past the most awkward of his growth spurts too, but just past them. She'd grown into something more impressive than him in many ways but he had honed himself into something less naturally appealing but that was full of skills and talents that were well worth the effort.

There was a reason why it was the oldest business in the world, that he knew. He also knew not to question it. Maybe he wouldn't like the answers and he very much wanted to like all of her answers right now.

"You ought to fall for it. I'm working hard." Petulant and young, a little smile on his face. Then, quietly, an admittance between friends. "I spend some time every week at the old theater, learning how to say stuff like that and manners and how to bow. It's useful."
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:29 pm

"If you want me to fall for it, you're gonna have to prove it." And suddenly -- oh. That's what she means. The clean, offered wrist; the sleek, white neck. "Otherwise it's just business."

And then, another admittance between friends. "It is a good thing to learn, isn't it? Manners."
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Thu Feb 14, 2013 3:14 am

Prove it? He talked a good game and sometimes he even managed to pull some things off, and yeah, maybe he was flirting a little with a pretty girl a couple of years older who just happened to be in charge of the Teahouse, but when she said that, he paled just a little. Then she stuck her hand out and with a quick movement, he grabbed it, shook it, and then, realizing maybe that's not what he was supposed to do, turned it over with surprising grace (trained, artificial grace) to kiss it. "Mi'lady."

There was the sign of it, manners. "It's.. useful, but it's hard. It's all so fake and.." He was meant for rooftops and open expanses. Manners confined and they confined for no real reason. People just agreed to act one way. "It's hard."
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