och när din oro ständigt växer i en bister tid
for Rory
Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
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Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#1
m a e a
here comes the sun
smiling down


Fiat Lux har come and gone, and for all that the world they knew had been irrevocably altered, precious little had truly changed. The sun still played tag with stormclouds over a bright blue Flowerbirth sky, fields still needed tending and sowing, and while the amount of travelers through the Outskirts had increased with the disappearance of the barrier they vad yet to see any signs of intruders.

Change was still in the air however, and it had caused too many rifts between people. It was to try and mend one of them that Maea made her way over fields and meadows one early afternoon, carrying a basket full of foodstuffs in one hand and a sheaf of papers in the other. She passed by plowed fields, rounded a fenced off pasture where shaggy ponies grazed calmly in the shifting sunlight, and approached the main house. Outwardly she looked calm, content even, but it was just a facade; beneath the simple white dress and neatly braided hair was a roiling mess of agitated nerves, buzzing about like a glitter of butterflies or perhaps a hornets nest...

Maea knocked on the door, hoping Rory would actually be home. If not... she would hate having to go looking for him. Hate it, and do it anyway.
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Leatherworker

Age: 36 | Height: 175cm / 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
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#2
RORY
i told the stars about you
Rory's life had a rather distinct pattern: he woke up, he ate something, he worked hard on various things (there was always something that needed fixing), he ate some more, and eventually went and crashed in bed. There wasn't much time for social niceties, barely even time to go into the Settlement and barter for things he actually needed. Left alone with a workload that had always been shared by at least two he found that while he could manage it, it had begun to wear him out in a way he had not experienced before.

Because between everything that needed doing around the farm—feeding, weeding, making sure goats and ponies were healthy, the kiddings weren't over, the occasional slaughter, putting debris away, fixing broken fencing, watering, the list goes on ad infinitum—he still had his leatherworking business to take care of. While he was fairly self-sufficient on the farm, it was the leatherworking orders that actually afforded him a bit of freedom. Flour, baked goods, his own projects, a safety fund in case of drought or an accident—it was possible only because of what he did.

He was in the workshop that afternoon. Upon his desk sat a small parcel, wrapped up in bright cloth and tied off with a string. He threw it pensive glances every so often, as if unsure about it, like it might pop up and bite him at any moment.

His hands were busy working on what was to become a leather jerkin, carefully punching holes along the edges of long strips of thin leather, so that he could eventually stitch it together. Right now, though, it just looked like a mess, but he knew exactly what he was doing.

There was a hint of dark shadows under his blue eyes, which once again drifted to the little parcel, before returning to his work, when he heard the sound of a distant knock through the open workshop door. A moment later, Vaya barked from the goat pen. "I'm in the workshop!" he called out.
Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#3
m a e a
here comes the sun
smiling down


Silence, long and protruded, grated her nerves like so much work down cord (it wasn't really, just a matter of seconds) before a dog barked and a voice called from one of the outlying buildings. The workshop. Right, because the work never ended... you either dealt with it or allowed the tasks to sit untouched, a growing pile of guilt that would always be there.

Holding on to the things she had brought, Maea turned back and let Rory's call guide her to where he was. His farm was not entirely foreign ground to her, but she was not feeling at home either as she tapped carefully at the workshop door and entered. The scent of leather and glue, dyes and old house that rushed in to greet her was strong but not unpleasant; she found the man within immediately, hard at work, and gave him a tentative smile.

"Hi Rory. Is this a bad time?"

Was there ever a good time, really? Their last exchange har been far from pleasant, and Maea felt the words he'd thrown out hovering awkwardly in the air between them. And that was the whole reason she had come, wasn't it?
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Leatherworker

Age: 36 | Height: 175cm / 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 8 - Int:
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#4
RORY
i told the stars about you
He peered curiously towards the door, wondering who it was that sought him out. The lack of Isuma bounding through the workshop door had him thinking it probably wasn't Jigano, and he tried to not be disappointed. Whoever it was, it wasn't their fault that they weren't him, so it would seem terribly unfair to blame them for such a thing.

He punched a couple of more holes with the chisel and small mallet before the knock sounded on the open door, and he laid down his tools and turned on his chair.

And through the door came .. Maea, of all people.

It was surprising, and it showed in the slight (and curious) lift of his eyebrows. With her brother dead and his rather stormy exit from her meeting he hadn't thought she'd be coming around here, though he didn't mind. Not really. He was mellow, until he wasn't, and he had snapped at a fair few people over his lifetime, but he wasn't exactly known for holding grudges either.

An easy animal to get along with, unless you provoked him. "Hi," he responded, one hand ending up on his desk regardless, absentmindedly twirling an awl around on its fat wooden handle. "No, no, it's fine. What brings you out here?"

Was there an elephant in the room? Perhaps, or it was merely a ghost in the corner of her eye. Rory looked at her, and her burden, curiously, suspecting it was more than just a friendly neighbor visiting.
Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#5
m a e a
here comes the sun
smiling down


No scowling, no sighs, no cold silences... and if he was disappointed that it was the wrong white-haired person to shadow his doorstep then Maea didn't notice. She relaxed and offered him the basket with a slight smile; delicious aromas of baked apples wafted up from benath the cover of the towel, and the neck of a bottle poked through, sloshing with a pretty golden liquid.

She was not Amalia, couldn't work miracles with bread and pastries like the Chandrakant girl, but Maea did know her way around a kitchen well enough to produce something edible. And her brother's apple cider had been famously good.

"A peace offering" she said, "and a proposition. I wanted to talk some more about the Council, without a bunch of clever-mouthed people around to add their opinions."

Maea was not about to give up just because the first discussion had not gone over well. Rory may have sworn off a seat at her table but that didn't mean he had nothing to contribute. On the contrary, she wanted to hear all the things that were wrong, so that they could be fixed.
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Leatherworker

Age: 36 | Height: 175cm / 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 8 - Int:
Played by: Neowulf Offline
Change author:
Posts: 397 | Total: 642
MP: 970
#6
RORY
i told the stars about you
He could tell that she had been worried—anxious, perhaps. It didn't take a genius to figure out the reason, and Rory's tongue could be very sharp.. but if he thought back on that Council meeting, he mostly felt tired, and slightly embarrassed that he hadn't been able to keep his temper in check.

Then again, most of the details were sort of fuzzy; he had been stressed out of his mind the entire time, and had barely slept at all from the time that he formed the mob until—

Well. He did not want to think about it, because it threatened to open up a void inside of him, a flood of terror he drowned in every single time. So he chased his mind back to the present, to the tension that left Maea's body and the smile that blossomed in its wake. It was still a little .. shy? Hesitant? But considering that their relationship had mostly consisted of "my brother's business-partner/friend" and "my business-partner's/friend's little sister", that wasn't strange.

They hardly knew each other, aside from rumor and brief interactions when they didn't have to do much except be nice.

Raising an eyebrow he took the offered basket, peering briefly under the towel before putting it among the clutter on his workbench. The Valair apple cider was famous, but the bottle was sealed, so it was mostly the baked apples having his mouth watering.

She was giving his eyebrows a lot of exercising, as it found reason to rise again. Peace offering? Bah. Clever-mouthed people? "Oooh," he said a little cheekily, "is that frustration I hear?" He winked playfully at her before looking pointedly to the basket instead. "Smells more like a bribe."

He considered it for a moment, his hand returning to spinning the awl around. Part of him really, really wanted to get another couple of hours worth of good work into the jerkin, but also... Hrm.

"So. Consider me bribed. How about we have some of this, and I listen to what's on your mind. There's another chair over there..." He pointed, rather unspecific, towards the back of the workshop, where there was at least one chair, beleaguered by various odds and ends. "Unless you're cold?" He hadn't lit the workshop's hearth; he sat in a strip of sunshine coming in from the door, which warmed his hands enough to let him work, and usually the sun came back from its games of hide-and-seek fast enough that he didn't really get too cold.

But. Maea had always been fragile, in some ways. "We could go up to the house," he offered with a small shrug.
Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#7
m a e a
here comes the sun
smiling down


Her smile turned rather lopsided, wry humor hinting in her eyes at the quip as he took the basket.

"Aren't they the same thing? Consider yourself bribed. And you have no idea how frustrating it is to try and keep everyone happy and working in the same general direction.... Oh wait, you and Evie had a thing going a while back, right? Then maybe you do know..."

She found herself the chair and dragged it over, casually waving off the offer to seek out warmer lodging as she sat down. With Ludo's gift over her shoulders the cold was a distant thing that wouldn't touch her. The breeze waiting in through the open door was only refreshing, full of sunlight and green scents. A welcome thing, all in all.

"No need, I won't take up too much of your time. I just... wanted to hear your thoughts on this project. The Council. Let's forget for a moment that I'm the one leading the whole thing, and ignore the people that currently sit on it. What do you honestly think of the concept, in general?"

Maea was aware that she did things in the wrong order. In an ideal world she should have asked this question before trying to make it a reality, but things had become... messy. Tangled. As complicated as the whole general situation in the Hollow.
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Leatherworker

Age: 36 | Height: 175cm / 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 8 - Int:
Played by: Neowulf Offline
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Posts: 397 | Total: 642
MP: 970
#8
RORY
i told the stars about you
Okay: when not being her brother's awkward tag-along, it turned out she had a pretty sharp tongue in her mouth. "Ouch," he said, his face a mask of hurt, though a small smile lingered on his lips still. "That was low." Oh, he knew that Evie could rub many people the wrong way—she was opinionated and unafraid to speak her mind, and he wasn't an idiot. Not everyone found the idea of having their flaws pointed out in crisp detail appealing.

But if you just gave her some time to settle in your company, you'd be treated to the real Evie, and he wasn't lying when he said it had taken him a couple of years to actually be over the whole thing.

When it became obvious that Maea was finding the aforementioned chair Rory stuck his inquisitive nose back in the basket, and with care fished out two baked apples, handing one to Maea as he listened.

Governance was an alien and foreign concept to Rory, a child who had grown up in a sort of well-functioning anarchy regulated by altruism and the collective annoyance that arose when someone was too far out of line. Lacking stories of proper governments, ruling of any kind (except for what he had been told of of Numeria), the whole thing was rather bizarre.

"It's more relevant now," he said with a sigh, licking some stickiness off his fingers. "I was pig-headed and didn't want to admit the fact that the barrier might fall, yet here we are." He chose not to think of Maea's part in it. "We're lucky that no grand army has ridden in to claim us, or something," he went on, bitterly. "I don't care much for the idea of a council to affect us, for we've been fine for three hundred years, haven't we? But you had a point about needing some form of united front towards the rest of the world."

Carefully, Rory bit into his baked apple, letting the still-warm, savory and sweet taste flood his mouth.
Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#9
m a e a
here comes the sun
smiling down


She grinned at his mock hurt, pleasantly surprised that he was playing along. Her image of Rory had always been of someone stern, down to earth but serious... perhaps because most of the few situations where they'd actually spoken was over business. There was little reason to laugh over barrels of mutton, sheepskin or cider kegs, borrowed ponies or goat cheese, but apparently Noah had done so anyway where she simply did what needed to be done and left, hurrying back for the safety of home. This was more the side of him her brother used to see, and it began to make more sense how they had gotten along.

As for Evie... well. Maea thought she was used to the woman and her quirks after spending so much time together as kids, but apparently the time apart had made her skin tender again. She was not allowed beneath whatever shell protected the ginger woman's core, and dealing with her was like walking barefoot over rose thorns. One wrong step and blood was drawn.

Maea accepted her own apple and bit into it, chewing with as neat manners as was possible given the sticky nature of the pastry. Nodding in agreement with Rory's assessment, she too preferred not to think about the part she had played in entering the Spire... It had been the single biggest mistake of her life, and the regret still haunted her, with frequent nightmares and an ever present sense of guilt.

"It's what drove me to make it happen" she said, "though I wish now I'd chosen a better timing. I talked to Jigano about it too, and be was... not impressed. And maybe I could have chosen some other people to help me...

But none of us are going to be there permanently, Rory, I want you to know that. If we get things set up well enough that it actually becomes reality, I intend to let the people decide for themselves who will lead. They'll get to volunteer, and vote between the candidates...

I hope that will make it easier to swallow having someone lording over us."


She certainly didn't want the job full term. Maea still dreamed of becoming the adventuring Loreseeker, collecting stories and learning about the world... If she ever got good enough at reading and using the sword. Being a leader... It honestly didn't appeal to her, beyond the process of creating a working system.
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Leatherworker

Age: 36 | Height: 175cm / 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 8 - Int:
Played by: Neowulf Offline
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Posts: 397 | Total: 642
MP: 970
#10
RORY
i told the stars about you
The apple was good: warm (though it could've been warmer, but that wasn't her fault), savory, soft. The flesh fell apart easily in his mouth, full of buttery juice and subtle spices. Deceptively easy to eat, too. If this was what it was like to get bribed, he wasn't going to complain if it happened again.

At the mention of Jigano and his reaction to it, Rory grunted. To say that he had been 'not impressed' was almost putting it mildly—the bard was deceptively mellow at times, but Rory had seen the flames lick through a couple of times already. When he had been 'not impressed' with Maea's invitation and plans had been one of those times, even if it had not involved derision or particularly heated voices, his thoughts on the matter had been rather clear.

'Lording over'—Rory's face pulled into a grimace, and he licked off some more errant stickiness that was trying to run down his fingers. Perhaps he was going to have to find a way to wash his hands before resuming work on his jerkin, but.. worth it? Yes. "Elections?" he echoed thoughtfully, taking another bite of the apple as he let it sink in. It was .. a fair compromise between the lawless nature of the Hollowed Grounds, and the need for some sort of united front. "Not a bad call... Any thoughts of how long these ruling periods would be?"

He sighed softly after a moment. "Though I still think your greatest challenge is convincing the people that they need this system—so, you—in the first place. There doesn't seem to be any immediate threat from out there-" he waved haphazardly out the open door "-and without that, I think you'll be hard-pressed to be recognized, honestly. As long as there's no perceived need of a council, or a representative, I .. don't really think all that many will care." He could be wrong, of course. Rory wasn't the most social, he didn't have his fingers on the Hollowed Grounds's pulse. "So what are you going to do about that?" he asked, wolfing down the last bit of the apple.
Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#11
m a e a
here comes the sun
smiling down


She was glad that at least one of her ideas was mer with approval from both the men she had sought support from. It gave her some much needed confidence, and lent a new vigour to her voice as she replied. Leaning forward in her seat, the girl grew eager, happy to explain herself now that someone actually listened.

"A year, and no more. Shorter too in the beginning; I was thinking that Longheat might be a good time for such things. Right now, I want to give my group until Deepfrost to get ourselves going which is two seasons, and the next group would have as long, leaving plenty of space for adjustment and fixing the things and changing people that weren't optimal... And then the periods would get longer as everyone adapts."

This was the kind of change that wouldn't come easy, and wouldn't sit well with everyone. There would be dissent, and there would be problems, but Maea thought she had finally worked out a way to minimize the grumbling.

"Actually... I plan to be as inconspicuous as possible" she said, and finished off the last crumbs of her apple. "I made Sam write down some rules, and they will not bother anyone because they're so simple it's already working. Don't kill anyone, don't steal, don't trick people you trade with...  and if anyone do it anyway, they'll be put to work on a farm that need extra hands. Under someones watchful eye, to make sure it happens. I will make a  Council and in name it will rule the Hollow... but if people ignore ut that's fine. That just means it will be in place if and the  something does happen... And by then everyone will be so used to its existence that they don't question their decisions."

Provided they were good decisions, but that was a matter for someone else to solve. Hopefully. Maea lived on hope these days.

"The biggest issue I have right now is how to break it to people that this is happening åt all. I don't want to cause the kind of riot that Roana enabled with her notice board massage... Do you have any suggestion?"
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Leatherworker

Age: 36 | Height: 175cm / 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 8 - Int:
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MP: 970
#12
RORY
i told the stars about you
She was passionate at least, and there was nothing anyone could say differently about that. She had obviously spent some time considering it, though he wondered idly why she hadn't said these things at the meeting already. Was she afraid of losing support if they knew they would be cycled out so soon? Then again, he didn't think it would've made much of a difference for him—he'd been too pissed at the whole world to want to be cooperative.

"Just don't switch things up too quickly, if you finally manage to get people comfortable with this idea," he mused quietly. Training (gentling, really) animals his entire life had taught him how vital stability was.

The rest of her plan was .. problematic. Again, animal training. Rory was silent for a time, licking his fingers clean before grabbing a rag. It was still moist from some other unholy purpose, and carefully he began to clean the last of the stickiness from his hands. He liked her lack of ambition when it came to law-making, her lack of ambition when it came to change, but that was also the one big flaw in her plan. And briefly, he grappled with himself: should he even point it out to her? Or should he just wash his hands of this, step back, and watch this whole project sink?

He thought of Evie's brittle agreement to sit on this Council. He thought of everything he didn't know—that vast and terrifying and possibly oh so dangerous world out there. In the end, he was too honest not to help her, even though he worried what would happen when this project was no longer in her hands.

"If it's one thing I've learned when training horses, it's that if you want to get them used to something new, you have to expose them to it," he said quietly, folding up the messy rag with more care than the task actually required. "While I approve of that sort of low-profile lawmaking, if you want people to become used to a Council, and to accept it as their, well, decision-making body the day some foreign representative rides in here.. then you need to get out there."

He sighed and put the rag aside. "If someone trades unfairly and you tell them to go work on somebody's farm—what if they don't want to go? Are you ready to back that up with a show of force? Because it will come to that, sooner or later. Humans are not as kind as horses, less honest, too."

Was he honestly telling Maea to strong-arm his—their—people? He couldn't believe what he was doing, and the gaze he leveled on her was tired. "Is it a riot if no one got hurt?" he mused, something wry creeping into his eyes even though all he felt like doing each time someone said 'riot' was sigh heavily. It hadn't been a riot. "I'm not too keen on doing that again, but I don't know what sort of ideas I might've planted in someone else's head. But the way I see it, you have.. well, two major options. One is to just beat everyone into submission, which will endear you to absolutely no one and just might get me back into 'riot' mode. The other is to start small. Don't say all that much about law-making and forced punitive labor, but say that.. I don't know, people can bring their disputes to you, and gods know there's no shortage of disputes here. Meddle just enough. Settle these disputes with the council. Make sure your decisions are followed up on, but again—be prepared that you will have to use violence."

He shrugged slightly, spinning the awl again.

"It's the price for power, you know. You'll just have to decide if it's worth paying it."
Maea Valair
Hollowed Grounds Ambassador / Loreseeker

Age: 29 | Height: 156 cm / 5'1 ft | Race: Ancient | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 2 - Strg: 22 - Dext: 22 - Endr: 25 - Luck: 20 - Int:
Played by: Chan Offline
Change author:
Posts: 3,025 | Total: 5,767
MP: 1897
#13
m a e a
here comes the sun
smiling down


Part of her wanted nothing more than to throw in the towel, wash her hands off thus whole thing and bury herself in the books of the Atheneum. But the responsible, caring side of her was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place, and it wouldn't stand for cowardice or leaving things unfinished. So she listened quietly to Rory's advice, reached for another apple before they got completely cold and nibbled it thoughtfully.

His points were very good, gave her a lot to think about, and really just confirmed how correct of a choice he had been for this whole affair. If anyone should lead it was this quiet leatherworker, not her. Not she, who wanted nothing more than to throw the burden onto someone else and run for the border.

"You have a point there. Several, actually, and I'll definitely consider changing things. Nothing is finalized yet, but it's getting there... Can I count on you to tell me if I screw up? Preferrably before you gather up another mob..." Point taken; poor choice of words on her part.

There was a hint of laughter in her voice at the last bit, but her eyes were serious enough that it was only a half joke. Maea trusted Rory's judgement, and if he came to get saying that something was up the walls, she would believe him and do anything to change.

"I'm sorry I made such a mess of this..."
♦ Violence, magic, thievery is permitted with Maea at all times. DM me if you have any ideas ♦
Leatherworker

Age: 36 | Height: 175cm / 5'9 | Race: Abandoned | Nationality: Natural | Citizenship: Hollowed Grounds
Level: 3 - Strg: 16 - Dext: 17 - Endr: 20 - Luck: 8 - Int:
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MP: 970
#14
RORY
i told the stars about you
Rory watched: he always did. He watched and he listened and he thought about what he saw and what he heard. He drew parallels in places other perhaps would not, knowing what he did of what drove certain animals towards certain behaviors. He knew that you could teach a horse with either fear or love, and he had seen that the same wasn't true for humans. Some you could only teach through fear.

Some dogs (and horses, truly) challenged you, but you could usually win that fight with violence. Without fear.

Humans? Nah. Not so much. Their wild and complex thoughts added wildness and complexity to solving their problems, some so far gone into selfish survival that the ends justified all means. No holds barred. He bit the inside of his lower lip, watching her with tired and thoughtful blue eyes. "Well," he said noncommittally, a small smile curving the corner of his mouth, "that depends on how much time you give me to find other ways of stopping you."

Because honestly, what was he supposed to have done? Tried to talk to Roana? He had tried like three times total and she had been dissuaded not by his words, but by the fact that she would've had to start laying into unprotected people in order to get through. No: the mob had been a security measure. A human fence.

Then she apologized and he regarded her for a moment, the silence broken only by their breathing and the spinning of the awl. It whirred, wood on wood, as he regarded her. Again, he found himself torn: to comfort her, or to let her sit in this misery she had put herself in? He didn't like it when his empathy was appealed to in such a way, even if it wasn't her intention, and the sigh he heaved was small and quiet.

"Maea, I might not like what you're doing, even if I see the merits of it, but anyone would've had a mess on their hands with this. It's just the nature of it. As Vai said, you're trying. No one of the Naturals has any particular experience with leadership or politics. Everyone has to start somewhere, regardless of what they're doing." He used the awl to tap the leather strips he'd been working on when she came in. Rory certainly hadn't been born proficient at leatherworking. He had learned, over the years.

Just as she would learn, if she stayed on her path.


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