[IC Inbox -- Snowblind]

[heavensreader]

Is it worki - oh. Ahem. This is Kesara Freamon. Please leave your message here and I will call back on you as soon as I can.







Wait, is it still - argh, how do I ma-

Comments

[devoutish]

We talked about it. Consequences, what might happen, what might not happen. He chose to do it, and I respect that.

[heavensreader]

[Perhaps he is implying that she should also respect it. She thinks she hears as much. But Kesara’s gut still growls protest. It’s like when Handsome Jack killed Zach, the same feeling, beyond hurt and anger. No right, she thinks, no right…]

I’m going to talk to him. This is ridiculous, Mr. Solomons, we have so much to do and they do that, this is ridiculous. They need, there needs to be – reason.

[devoutish]

He did have reason, yeah? You do not have to like it, you do not have to agree, but he did not do this unthinkingly.

[heavensreader]

No, I don't mean a reason to do it - to murder someone. I mean they need to see reason, both of them, all of them. We're, we're...

[She feels very childish saying this to him, but steels herself and ploughs ahead.] This isn't really a town, Mr. Solomons, this is more like an expedition. And those need order, if anyone at all's to come back alive.

[devoutish]

We'd need somebody in charge for it to be a proper expedition. We'd need order, right. Strict order. But we haven't got the right sort of set-up here for that.

[He doesn't think it would ever work.]

[heavensreader]

[He's right, naturally. When she thinks about it at all, she sees as much, and a small sound of furious frustration escapes her.]

I bet that, back in London, you don't work with people who can't keep strict order. Not in what you do!

[devoutish]

[She isn't wrong. He might work loosely with them, but closely? Never. People who can't control themselves, or control the people under them, are unreliable.

But.]

This isn't London, bubbeleh.

[heavensreader]

This isn't Serindia either. [She had so many good tricks back home...]

But they're men. They're just men. Lao Dian says, anyone that has a brain, belly, and balls, can be caught by one of the three. It takes the right trick, that's all.

[devoutish]

[Kesara, don't talk about balls. He swallows a little sound of surprise and amusement.]

Duster is tricky, yeah. But his way is a bit different from mine, and a bit different from yours.

[heavensreader]

Oah, everyone's a bit different. Lao Dian said that too - that a Chinaman's brains, or belly, or even balls aren't all like an Englishman's. But they're people. Even those who say they're not - I've been watching. I can do people, Mr. Solomons.

[It is all the confidence she has, and she will stand on it all she possibly can.]

[devoutish]

I believe it.

[He can do people too, and she's worlds better at it than he was at her age.]

What do you plan to do about Duster?

[heavensreader]

I'll talk to him first. I'll - I'll try to understand. But... [she's silent for a moment, chewing on her lower lip. She suspects that she knows at least one outcome of that conversation already.]

... but maybe it's Dr. House that I'll have to do something about.

[devoutish]

Dr. House needs to do something about himself.

[heavensreader]

He does. And he knows it, but that's just why he won't. He's angry that he needs to do anything.

[devoutish]

Are you planning to talk to him, too?

[heavensreader]

Not... yet. [She speaks slowly now, thinking it through as she does.] I told you. Nothing's really changed. I don't have any - any - what's the word, Mr. Solomons, for something you use to make something move that's too big for you?

[devoutish]

Leverage?

[heavensreader]

Leverage. [What an excellent word.] I need time. I'm not that good at this yet. But I'll learn by doing.

[devoutish]

And that you are good at. Yeah.

Are you good at compromise and negotiation?

[heavensreader]

[Compromise is a word she likes a little less. A rather childish sigh escapes her.] I've had to be good at compromise, you know.

[But of course this is not truly what he's asking, and the question is a serious one. Negotiation means...] I think... you can only negotiate with people who'd agree to it. Who'll compromise with you. Other people, you have to trick.

[devoutish]

Yeah, that's true.

[He considers tricking a part of negotiation - not always necessary, but sometimes, they're two sides of the same coin.]

But there's compromise in tricks too, yeah? Both tricks and negotiations, right - they can fail. Even for people like me.

[And he is very curious about what she thinks of that.]

[heavensreader]

[Even for people like him. Kesara is not so young anymore as to think anyone is infallible - with one or two notable exceptions, perhaps. But Alfie is neither, for all that she looks up to him. And she is seasoned to failure, herself. For her it means waiting, biding her time, trying another angle, changing her goals... perhaps that's what he means by compromise.

But for people like him...]

Is that when it's time for the the knives and the guns?

[devoutish]

Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes. Not in every situation, but in some.

[heavensreader]

I don't have those.

[That, she realises, is what she thinks of that. If she had those, she doesn't know what she might do. She's young. She's only ever held a gun once in her life. What does she really know about this power? Who would she be if she did hold it?]

So it doesn't matter to me. I'll do what I can with what I have. Lao Dian says - [always what Lao Dian says lately. Not what Dame Ariel says. She wonders what that means.] Lao Dian says, a hand never shot a gun without a head to aim it.

[devoutish]

Lao Dian is a smart man.

[Seriously, he sounds like Alfie's kind of guy.]

And you're a smart girl, which is often more important than having a weapon, right.