Building the Committee: Myrken's Precious Little Flower

[channe]

A simple truth about Kerrak al'Nerun, according to Agnieszka Kaczmarek: He is a good man. An honorable man. A good, honorable, batshit crazy with a heaping side of insane man. One of these things is not like the other; one of these things concerns her greatly. At any rate, she drops back into her chair and tilts her head, looking at him inscrutably.

Her old temper seems to be returning rather easily, it seems. When working for the King's Own she was practically restrained; here, the old light is back in her eyes, she's constantly in motion, tapping her feet, pacing, wringing her hands --

-- and that's a dirty look she's shooting him at the moment. It's positively apoplectic.

"Fine. Done. I'll babysit. I hope it's your freakin' house he blows up first. Just don't fuckin' condescend to me, guv." She's not happy about it, but she knows full well that her own studies of tactics are still primarily academic, and that having Kerrak around would be a very good idea. Well, if he didn't defect back to his home country or decide to make barbecue of the marketplace.

She drops back into her chair.

"You've changed, Glenn."

[Glenn]

Oh good. He let Agnie off her leash and now she was going to be ridiculous. What. Had. He. Done? Glenn couldn't help but smile even if it was. "Are you going to move back into your old house? I suppose it would be bad if a channeler would blow that up. Or, you know, a strong wind." The defecting bit was a worry, but see, that was the brilliance of it. Glenn was putting the Defense vote in the hands of a complete outsider, someone tied to Trae Kelsa, and someone tied to Thessilane. It all balanced out... right? Maybe brilliance wasn't the word.

He's changed? "I hear that a lot, and worse. All sorts of nasty things." Many of the worst of them were from a known Thesshole sympathizer in Lamai, but there was no reason to bring that bit up. "Myrken does that to you. If we had an anthem, that'd be a good inclusion, a line about how it changes you." Here, finally, he yawns. It's been a long few days and the next few will be just as long. "I never wanted this, Agnie, but I've got it, and I'm not some paranoid solicitor or crazy cultist fop or senile fat slob or weirdo amnesiac dragon," and that last bit was just Glenn adding his usual outlandish flourish to the proceedings, right? "I'm me, and I'll do my best for OUR people." And now, four and a half years later, did she have the same problem with him saying that?

[channe]

"I sold it for money to get to Razasan," she says, shortly, crossing her arms, sounding a little calmer. "I'm stayin' on the farm for now, and nobody's ever gonna burn that down again. Not sure where I'll live. It might be good t' be out at the barracks or the arena, or close by."

She pauses for a moment, looks down at her unraveling tunic hem -- "You say that Myrken changes you. I grew up here. I kinda wonder what would have happened if I'd been like you, if I'd grown up somewhere else and wandered into all of this batshit later on." She pauses, and listens to his litany of former governors -- narrowing her eyes a bit at the dragon part, but obviously not following his intimation. And then, she eyes him from her chair, and speaks again --

"... Yeah, I know you'll do your best." She pauses. "And may the Bright bear down mercy on all of us."

[Glenn]

Plenty of batshit in Glenn Burnie's life before he reached Myrken but it was all a blur, a flash here, a flash there, no context, nothing tying it together, no point. There wasn't much to him when he arrived in Myrken. All flight, no fight. She would die (this time for good) long before understanding even an inkling of this, but it was Agnieszka that changed that for him. That's why it was all so important. She broke the elephant's back like only she could.

Maybe that was why he was up on his feet so suddenly, why he had made it across the admittedly small room even as she was so obviously thinking of exiting it. It's why his arm went out, and if she wouldn't draw back or punch him in the nose, his hand would reach above her wrist. Two fingers would try to draw down and actually stroke her well covered elbow, tender and affectionate. It wasn't the sort of thing Glenn Burnie did. It wasn't the sort of thing Agony generally allowed.

And if he was still conscious after trying this, he'd speak with a soft voice. "All of them, all of the captains, and the marshals, and the councilors, and the governors. All of them that screwed up and let people die, and let Myrken burn, and the did everything wrong, the madmen and the fools and the monsters. They're gone now. It's our time, Agnieszka. It's our time." Just as quickly as he'd moved in, he'd draw back away. History remembered so many that came before so poorly. Were they just to be two more on that list?

It was with an even expression that he looked to her. "Chairwoman Kaczmarek, I want you ready and able-minded sooner than not. For now though, go off and get sloshed." With a nod he'd be retreating back behind his chair once more.

[channe]

Maybe she doesn't understand. Maybe that kind of thing is still too far from her idea of life -- that she could have such an affect on another person. Perhaps that is why she runs roughshod over every single interaction she has with other human beings; perhaps that's part of the way she is. Perhaps that's why, when he touches her, she recoils --

-- perhaps it's something else.

But after a moment, she reaches into her pocket, takes out a leather glove, draws it over her hand and then reaches to clasp his. She'd allow this, at least.

"And we are not madmen, nor fools, nor monsters." A bit of a breath, there, and then she grins at him. "... well. Maybe monsters." And with that she pulls back, salutes him as she would a superior, and then... winks. "I'll take that as an order. And you, take a break, huh?"

And she turns and walks to the door, and looks back over her shoulder when she reaches it, her hand on the knob -- "You'll be a fine governor if you don't let it go to your head. And if you do, I'll bring you back down." And with one more wink, she's gone, moving towards the front of the street.