Patronage

Patronage

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 29, 2013 1:58 am

There was a time in every Myrken boy's life that he must step forth and begin to become a man. For a cobbler's son the shape and feel of that time might be different than for a farmboy. For those who could afford to dress at least relatively nicely, such as this teenager walking down the streets of Myrkentown with a specific destination in mind, it was the Teahouse where the event occurred.

He would knock upon its door. Once, twice, thrice. It wasn't a coded knock by any means, but the timing, steady and specific, contained an underlying message. Solena was away still, and while there was so much to fill his day, Elliot Brown knew the way of things, the direction his life was heading. He had excess money and two young women to spend it upon; one of which did not need anything and the other found joy in the most mundane objects and came with him to steal the nicer ones. It meant that he had to do something with his excess funds. Alms would only gain him the sort of public attention his mentor wished for young rogues to avoid.

Thus, he was here.

When the door would open, he'd say, with a poised, well trained smiled. "I have an appointment with Miss Petronela Kaczmarek. Thank you."
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Tue Jan 29, 2013 1:03 pm

The girl who answers the door is young. Too young. Her skin is dewy, her eyes bright, her giggle when she sees Elliot? A girl's, through and through. She pauses, and her face falls a little when she realizes that Elliott has a different idea than flirting with her. A pause, and she curtsies -- nicely, as Cambree would have once required -- and leads him into the room.

The teahouse is closed; it's still too early in the morning, isn't it? The girl disappears into a back room, coming out a few minutes later. She prepares a teapot, walking it over and placing it in front of Elliot. It's only then that Petronela comes out from down the stairs. She's wearing -- is that silk? Yes, silk, and in a few layers, artfully clasped at the waist. A pause, as she comes closer, and stands by the table.

"I don't remember booking an appointment," she says, looking at Elliot.
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 29, 2013 1:25 pm

Elliot Brown was young too, maybe not as young as the girl, but young enough. Other boys his age were going to barn dances, had been for years. He'd spent years running off on drugged chocolate induced adventures and learning to be a thief from an elf many times his elder (though perhaps not in relative terms). He cavorted with dreamwitches and powerful mages and sentient balls of light. There was a certain lacking to his social acclimation and experience that no amount of time learning stage manners from the performers and artists of the Gilded Lily could make up for.

The teahouse was actually a wonderful place for him to solve so many of those problems.

Unfortunately, that's not why he was there at all.

He was dressed as nicely as possible and truly, that was fairly nice. She had her silks and he had a very nice jacket and fairly expensive clothes under it. No one would mistake him for a noble, but a young swell? A young bravo? Perhaps. No wonder the girl had wanted to flirt with him. First came the smile and then the courtly bow, the sort you never saw in Myrken, executed with surprising grace. Did Nela remember him from their old lives, a farmgirl and a farmboy whose families were far enough away from each other that they traveled in different circles, but not so far that they didn't at least know of one another? They'd both changed so much. They'd changed themselves and their futures.

"No? I'm sure it's just some sort of mix up." That winning smile from the young man, a few years her younger. If his eyes lingered for a moment in that bow, it was just for a moment. "I could come back later." Finally he rose. Early was good these days, with Solena away. There was only so much to show Cat after all. He likely wouldn't be trying this if Solena was still here. "I've come to show my appreciation though. I do hope you can spare a few minutes for me."
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Tue Jan 29, 2013 1:43 pm

Did she remember?

A pause as she considers this. Biting her bottom lip for a moment, she smiles slightly as she slides into the chair across from them. With a slight curtsey to Petronela, now, the teahouse girl places a cup in front of her boss. She leans forward, resting her chin on hands woven together. "That's a nice bow for a farm kid," she says, grinning slightly.
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 29, 2013 1:48 pm

His grin matched hers, well, not quite, but it was conspiratorial to say the least. "And those are lovely silks for a farmgirl." There they were, so far from their origins, not geographically, maybe (though it sure felt like forever. Town was so far off when they were kids. Most people who grew up around them died within a few miles of where they were born). In other ways, though. "Granted, you always were a lovely farmgirl." The grin was real, but the words rang a bit empty, especially for someone so used to hearing them. Did she have brothers his age? Younger? He couldn't really remember. This was the sort of dance they had to go through, though. Some things were proper.

Did she think he was there for a girl? At this time of day.

Instead, just that grin. "You can say something nice about my jacket now, iffin you want."
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Tue Jan 29, 2013 2:03 pm

Lovely. Sure. Petronela was always the prettiest of the three Kaczmarek girls; Giertruda held the homeliness of a Northern housewife in her face and her gait, and Agnieszka never really cared about how she looked. Petronela, on the other hand, had always been looking out for the shiny, the gorgeous, the beautiful --

-- and she blushes. Stares straight down at her tea, and then back up at him. She's used to hearing them, of course, but she also owns the teahouse. Certainly she's picked a few things up from her employees.

"*Your* jacket? I thought you were here to appreciate -me-."
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 29, 2013 2:09 pm

Elliot Brown laughs, and for a moment all that carefully trained charm is gone and there is a farmboy standing there, albeit one who's been through so damn strange things. He didn't have the words he needed here. Nela spent her days in polite conversation. He didn't. It meant she'd have an edge upon him when it came to that sort of thing. It meant that he couldn't play this particular game with her. She'd win. He'd try to be himself then, for the most part at least. Granted, he didn't often win that way but he had something to offer here.

So any comments about mutual appreciation were lost in the face of her blush and his lack of words. Instead. "I'm actually here to show my appreciation to you in your role of being in charge of the Teahouse. All that it offers Myrken."
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Tue Jan 29, 2013 2:17 pm

And that -- that is pretty hilarious, isn't it? The fact that she's in charge of the Teahouse?

"Really," she says, sitting back in her chair, tipping her head to one side. She's tried to mask her provincial accent, but it doesn't quite work here -- the flat vowels escape under the supposed polish. "And how are you supposed to know what it offers Myrken? You ain't ever been here."
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Tue Jan 29, 2013 3:11 pm

In some ways, maybe he had one up on her. She was still trying to pretend to be what she wasn't. Past that bow and some nice words, he was himself. Except for one little thing. She WAS in charge of the teahouse. That meant that this WAS who she was, sort of. It was the sort of thing that gave a Myrken Boy a headache. Still, she'd challenged him. "One doesn't have to be a patron to be a patron." Speaking of comments that caused headaches.

Elliot Brown ran in certain circles, see? And in those circles he heard how things ought to be done. "That is, one doesn't have to.." sample the goods? He frowned for a moment, at a loss of words. He couldn't say that! It was terrible. "be a customer to appreciate what's in front of his own two eyes." Oh that wasn't much better. A frown came over his face. Presumably she'd done this sort of thing before. Teahouse girls heard things. They knew things. Thieves did this sometimes, right? Thieves and smugglers and all sorts of ne'er-do-wells, the underground establishment. They paid a small fee to be friendly with the Teahouse because one never knew when one needed that sort of a friend.

He really wished she'd ask him to sit down.
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Tue Jan 29, 2013 11:18 pm

Petronela running the teahouse was a simple stroke of luck, really; she'd been out on a jaunt for her erstwhile employer, his gold flush in her pocket, when she discovered the plates and the porcelain sitting by the side of the road. For the taking, she'd been told. Anyone who brought them in ran the teahouse.

Kaczmareks do not exactly look gift horses in the mouth.

"Your tea is just sitting there, getting cold," she says, indicating the tea in front of them. She then nods to the teahouse-girl, and the girl scurries away, to hang out behind the setup tables in the back of the place. Petronela eyes Elliot, then, almost waiting for him to say something else, and then she speaks.

"Anyone can come in here an' have a cup of tea and a delightful conversation, and, in a sense, be a patron. Ain't that what we're doing right now? If you'll ever sit down?" A pause.

And yes, teahouse girls heard things. In fact, Miss Petronela Kaczmarek was in a prime position to hear all the gossip, all the whispered secrets, every single inch of tawdry scandal and anti-government rant, every single thing her employer was interested in hearing.
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Wed Jan 30, 2013 2:11 am

It made one wonder just what she had heard about Elliot Brown?

Did she know that he trained with Solena? The former Marshall Renea had a year ago and that had been a year ago. Did she know of his association with the scarred battlemage Niall? That had gone on for years, after all. Years and years. Did she know of the recent attempted murder of a potion-maker? Likely not that, but she had to know he spent his time in the Dagger, among her sister's old haunts. And maybe he was more suited for Agnieszka's company than for her's (Did she know Agnieszka had punched him in the face?), save for the fact he dressed more like one of her crowd, that he seemed to have the desire to climb upwards while Agnie just lurched forward. Polite society, though? Despite his manners here, she very likely heard that he had made Rhaena Olwak yell at him, that he had managed to insult the veiled woman in the most thorough ways. No one else had managed that in the last year and she was a social figure much whispered about. And then there were all those THINGS gone missing from noble houses as of late. Things gone missing and that strange ball of light or a woman with a tail spotted nearby. He had an association with one of those, too.

"Thank you." Somewhere he found his trained social grace again and sat. He even sipped the tea correctly. It was too rigid though, like putting a nice hat on a dog. Elliot seemed to lose his confidence and bravado in conformity. He could learn to go through the motions but he lacked the actual experience. Nela was probably good enough to tell, probably. It meant she ought to have quite an advantage. She was an impostor too (she had just said "ain't" after all) but one with far more practical experience and more than that she was on her home ground surrounded by her befrilled flunkies.

Yes, his eyes did wander a bit, first to that first flirty girl that had welcomed him and now scuttered away and now back to Nela. He was at an age, past it even. It had just taken a while to get there due to all the magic and adventure and distraction. What different paths these two had to a similar place, to this very table? He was, of course, at no loss for females in his life. Niall. Nova, Solena, and what would Petronela Kaczmarek thing if she knew he had a new patron of his own, the same dreamwitch that their entire generation had been terrified of while growing up, Galacia. That last thought brought back his grin, some of his confidence. What was there to worry about here.

"I was thinking more along the lines of a monthly donation." He was an inexperienced and occasionally awkward teen, just a few days off of a rather traumatic whipping. If the teahouse could teach him anything, it was probably foreplay. He seemed to lack it completely. "I'd like to be a friend of this establishment, Miss Kaczmarek."
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Wed Jan 30, 2013 3:12 am

"Huh," she says, seeming to honestly consider this. She looks a little uneasy, a few seconds afterward. "We're a business, Elliot, not a charity," she says, quietly, looking at him from across the table. "You comin' in for a cup o' tea or one of Lissette's frou-frou brownie-cakes is all the donation and friendship we need. We'd like to see you here more. I think you'd enjoy yourself. ...and if you're worried about being taken seriously --" she indicates his jacket, and of course she would honestly think that, wouldn't she? -- "this is Myrken; you know as well as I do that if you try hard enough, you're not bound to what you were when you grew up." A pause. "I think you know that already."

She's heard of this from Glenn Burnie -- and from other businessmen and women in town. It's called patronage, and it means she can be bought; bought in a way that even her employer hasn't done in the past. Money for silence. Money for secrets kept. Dominik has told her about this. It would mean she wouldn't own her own place; it would mean divided loyalties, and a dark, deep rabbit-hole of crazy in her future. And there's one thing that Petronela has kept since the rule of Cambree Calomel, and it's an easy, hard and fast one: the only secrets kept within the teahouse walls were Cambree's -- and now Petronela's -- own.

She pauses, and indicates the tea. "That's a nice varietal from the coast of Amasynia, close to the tax-collector's hometown. Do you like it?"
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Wed Jan 30, 2013 3:27 am

She looked uneasy.

She looked uneasy and offered frou-frou brownie-cakes.

He stared at her. He'd not mentioned his name as of yet, either. How he got inside for an appointment without doing that was anyone's guess, but the boy was brazen. She said his name anyway, because she ought to know it. She knew him after all, and more than that, she knew him.

Others had to have come to her before him, right? Suddenly he wasn't sure. Cambree Swinton probably had no time for such offers, but Nela was a Kaczmarek! She was Dom's younger sister! Every other establishment in town operated this way, some even more blatantly. Of course, the Teahouse was different on a thousandfold scale, but the idea was the same.

"We are doing business." There was a tiny bit of frustration in his voice as he sipped the tea. "I'm not sure what a varietal is." He mumbled. She had to know what was going on. "It's ok. I'm not too good at telling the difference, though I'm pretty good at faking it." See? Honesty. He was being honest with her. She was trying in her own way to be kind to him, right? Or was she just trying to disarm him. He was getting a little turned about. "Hey, I'm not looking to be a real big friend, but I'd be one you would appreciate, about that big. I'd appreciate you. You'd appreciate me. It's win-win. I'm a good friend to have, Petronela." He wasn't going to try to lean on her or anything.
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Re: Patronage

Postby channe » Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:23 am

"Okay," she says, lifting her chin. Of course she knew his name. She was in the business of knowing names, these days. And that girl wouldn't have opened the door had Petronela not seen, somehow, who was waiting there. But think about it, farmboy-turned-thief; she grew up with absolutely nothing of her own, and now she has silks and glittering hairpieces and a teahouse, of all things. And, perhaps, if the teahouse simply sold tea, that would be one thing. But it doesn't, does it? She has human lives to think about. Human lives, and the trust of a Governor.

"So," she continues. "You appreciate me. With your... donation." She waves a hand. "How do you expect I... appreciate you back?"
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Re: Patronage

Postby Glenn » Wed Jan 30, 2013 7:31 am

Think about it? Imagine it? He's the same as her. He grew up with nothing. He grew up hungry. Dirt-farmers, the both of them. Look at him now with his nice jacket and athletic body and all the daggers (of which only one was on him now) and all the skill to use them, with special girls on his arm and in his dreams. She had human lives to think about. If the teahouse just told tea, that WOULD be one thing, wouldn't it? It'd mean that she wouldn't have all that she had and it'd mean that he wouldn't be here now. Neither of them was on the straight and narrow.

And now she was making him spell this out! It was a wink, a nod. It was implicit, understood. What was she doing? "Were we friends, Nela." First Miss Kaczmarek, then Petronela, then Nela. "It means I could help look out for you and yours. I'm the way to the top, Nela. It means if you needed something I could help you get it; if you lost something, I could help get it back; if someone tried to hurt you, well, I could help make sure that didn't happen. You get more than appreciation." Yet he didn't answer her question did he? She knew full damn well what he got out of this arrangement. It was business. His poise and posture was starting to slip, more and more by the second. It was too civilized in here for him and that was overwhelming. He sipped at his tea trying not to slurp.
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