realityshifted | ♥ feast your eyes on my display

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freakangels (d1) sirkka

♥ feast your eyes on my display

[There's a strangely attractive woman taking over your library today, Plane. Sirkka is indulging herself. On the long study table beside her, there's a setting of Earl Grey for four and some delicious chocolate-dipped cookie treats— all things she took from the community kitchen, of course. Sirkka has her long legs crossed over another chair while she sips her tea. She's enjoying her book too much to care about manners, even laughing every once in a while. Must be a comedy right?

Nah, just Twilight.]

This really is like secondary school.

[If one is as empathic as she is, they might detect a sort of dark, lingering thought beneath all of this that she's trying to distract herself from.]

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Oh, this is just fine. You weren't being rude in the slightest. [He sits down and takes up the teacup.] I hope I'm not interrupting your reading?

[She shakes her head.] Time doesn't pass here, so I've got time to socialize and read if I want. As if my days weren't lazy enough.

How have you been?

Edited 2010-09-14 03:04 (UTC)

Oh, I've been quite well. Well, not entirely well. I've an unwanted guest. As he's an old acquaintance, I can't exactly throw him out to the dogs, but his isn't company I care to keep. It's a bit tiring keeping an eye on him.

[Braxiatel is concerned about her Relationship, but as he is so terrible about those, he decides not to directly ask about it. He'll just leave it open-ended for her instead.] And what of you, Sirkka? How has everything been?

That's unfortunate. Maybe you can help his situation so that he'll have the motivation to move on. If that doesn't work, well, honesty is better than keeping it in until things worsen to the point where you blow up and say things you don't mean.

[That works. There's a sort of... darker feeling about that question. Since she's not bothering to wall herself off completely, he'll be able to detect some trepidation. Unless he doesn't want to. She's good at hiding it behind her smile anyways.] Things are spectacular in Whitechapel. There's solar energy available for those who need it, and some people say their lights are working without it. We think there might be a settlement a ways out that managed to get the station up, so that's good news.

Oh, I assure you, he and I don't hesitate to make our feelings known to one another.

[With his own mind so devoutly closed off, Braxiatel has to make a concentrated effort to do much psionics without losing his barriers. All he has to go on is his (somewhat limited) understanding of human psychology] And you've been dealing well with the problems of the new settlers?

Well, then! You can still help him, if you won't throw him out. Give him a better alternative. Sometimes people need a little push to get out on their own.

[She nods.] We have. As long as Jack keeps his salvage operation up, we'll be able to remedy the medical supply shortage. I hope. [She pauses.] If it gets worse and not better, I could ask for help from the Plane. It might not be a very covert alternative, but these people are important to me.

It's amazing, Mr. Braxiatel. In a week they were already helping build the solar panels. Now it's like they've been living here for ages like the rest of us.

A push seems tempting. Down a flight of stairs, preferably. [It's in that joking way that he has, but for those who pay close attention to language of the face, there's a brief downward flicker of the eyes]

[Then he smiles, because he does like to see success and progress.] I'm very happy for you. You know that if you ever need anything, you're free to call on me.

[She laughs softly.] I hope you know better than that.

[That's so nice, and she's really very happy about the way it's all working out. There's just one thing bothering her but it's more of an internal affair and so-- if she has to interfere, she will.] I know. Thank you. We've been doing very well, though. It's... more than I expected.

The people we took in will always have terrible scars, but after seeing their kids playing in the streets, I don't think anyone could regret taking them in.

I'd hope so too.

[Braxiatel takes a sip of his tea before speaking] And I'm glad for that as well. I've always thought it one of the particular cruelties of the universe that one can come to regret kindness. How is your Jack doing, by the way?

[Sirkka, to her credit, manages to keep her hand steady while drinking tea. However, the teacup makes a rather smart noise as she sets it down.]

Well, we did fight, as I thought we would. However - we're still talking, so I think we've moved beyond that. I haven't found anything else in my house, so none of my patients are in danger of finding it and hurting themselves by accident... Jack still carries a gun on him in the city and in his boat, and while I don't agree with it, I'd never deny him the right. Not everyone in the city is as open-minded or gentle or well-meaning as we'd like them to be, especially when supplies are involved.

Of course. That's about survival. People will become monsters to survive.

Even the best of us. [A trace of guilt in that downward flicker of her eyes? Maybe. She tucks a bit of purple hair behind her ear. It doesn't stay very well. Well, she needs to tell /someone/.] But some people enjoy it. I'm... worried about one of our members.

[Braxiatel observes that carefully, unmoving.] Go on.

I can tell when people use their powers. It feels like little flashes. Tossing a rock into a wall is small enough that I won't be able to notice, and it doesn't take much grace or concentration. But when someone exerts their influence over another person's thoughts or tries to control them— then yeah, I feel it.

The night that the Shoreditch Park survivors sent in their scouting party to attack, I felt something like that, too. Me and Jack confronted Luke about it and he denied it. But I could tell. I could just tell. 'Kady noticed it, too.

We don't have any proof and everyone seems to be okay. But it's been happening more often. If Luke ends up betraying us... it'll be just like before.

Edited 2010-09-15 22:23 (UTC)

[softly] And who, if is not too much to inquire, betrayed you before?

[She closes her eyes.] Mark. He was the sort of de-facto leader while we were kids. He was brilliant, smart, gifted, all of that. But he was secretly very angry. So angry, in fact, that we kicked him out of Whitechapel when we realized he was controlling people.

... No, not just controlling. He brainwashed them completely. Made them into his drones, because he thought-- he believed that we were "superior". [The distaste in her tone is more than audible.] He broke the big rule, so we exiled him and never looked back.

[Braxiatel is quiet for a moment. And then, slowly, he nods.] I have heard of and seen cases like that before. So many times before . . .

[Braxiatel shakes his head, more to himself than to her, and stirs his tea] Does Luke hold those same beliefs? Not that it's requisite.

[That worries her too. She sips her tea in a sort of nervous way.]

He didn't like what Mark did, either. Luke may be a bit of a narcissist but he at least has some common sense. Mark was a visionary, too, but Luke was always just the kid in the corner making snide comments at everything.

That doesn't mean things can't change. I don't really see Luke running off and joining forces with Mark anytime soon, but he did say he understood why Mark did what he did, and that's...

Concerning. And if you do exile him, you run the risk of letting him do exactly that.

Yes. It's a bit of a headache. But until he does something, we can't actually... act. Doubtful that half the clan even knows what's going on. But if someone breaks the big rule again, our method of dealing with it might change... considering how Mark's been sending us "gifts" now and then.

What sort of thing is a gift a euphemism for?

He sent in a girl with a shotgun and brainwashed her to kill any of us on sight. We flushed out her mind, of course, and gave her a place to stay, and she's a part of the family now. But the fact that Mark sent her worries me. We haven't heard anything from him personally, so we can't be sure, but who else would it be?

... Sometimes, I can't help wondering if the occasional raids from other territories aren't random people fighting for supplies. It's a pessimistic thought, but Alice said that Mark doublecrossed her brothers, who were weapons dealers, and killed them.

He could be just as ruthless to us if he came back.

And to the people in your community?

[Sirkka gains a look of determination.]

Even with Mark and Luke working together, ten is still better than two. We'll protect Whitechapel no matter what.

Even to the point of cold-blooded, pre-emptive murder?

[It's a question asked so calmly. No judgement, no suggestion, not even curiosity. It's like she is presenting an academic argument and he is simply querying into areas where he wants to hear how she would apply her thesis.]

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