IC Inbox

[archivisnt]

...you have reached the voicemail of Gertrude Robinson. Please leave your message, in detail. I will reply as time allows....

beep!

Comments

post-chapel so as not to spam Norton orz

[hellfollowedafter]

It's thirteen days before Dancy knocks. Christmas to Epiphany, then one day after. She doesn't know what she believes anymore, but she waits anyway.

"Ma'am."

Re: post-chapel so as not to spam Norton orz

[archivisnt]

"Good afternoon," Gertrude murmurs, steps back, and pulls the door open. Her cabin is a simple room, large, walled with shelves except for the one couch tucked up to the left-hand side of the door. A heavy wooden desk sits in the room's center, with a leather chair behind it, a simpler wooden chair in front. She nods towards the sofa.

"Make yourself comfortable?"

Re: post-chapel so as not to spam Norton orz

[hellfollowedafter]

She goes where she's directed, but sits up straight on the edge of the cushion, rather than settling back in.

Re: post-chapel so as not to spam Norton orz

[archivisnt]

"Would you like some tea?" There's an electric kettle sitting on a filing cabinet next to the door that leads to her half-bath. She moves over to the cabinet, pulling a few mugs and teabags from the top drawer, and taps the button to start the water heating. Whether Dancy agrees or not, she would like some tea.

"And-- let's see. I believe we were at, 'did you get dominion over the fourth part of the Earth,' before we agreed to a continuance?"

[hellfollowedafter]

[Some days, I was the rider, she said. And some days, she was the Pale Horse.]

They had plans, I think. We walked - all up and down the country. Laying things low. I was - in and out, you know? In my own head. They walked me down to this ancient black oak. Where things began, they said, and it weren't no proper tree. They were gonna kill -

[My girl, she has no right to say -]

Somebody. With my hands and my knife, right at the roots of the tree. I don't rightly know exactly what it would have bought them, but I'm thinkin' a little real estate ain't a bad guess.

[archivisnt]

They used you. [Her tone is not gentle, but there is no judgment in it. It sounds as though she'd only been tangentially aware of her own actions: some days the rider, some days ridden.

She doesn't know if Dancy is from her own world, but if she isn't, she's certainly from a similar one.

The kettle ticks, signaling it's ready, and she pours, adds the teabags, stirs sugar and a spoonful of powdered creamer into her own cup before glancing up at the girl.]

You say, they were going to. You stopped?

[The briefest of pauses.] Do you take milk and sugar?

[hellfollowedafter]

[Angel threw me away, she thinks, And the Black Book picked me up. Or I was using them too. To survive, to destroy Fortescue and the Sireen and the rest. But she supposes none of that really matters. She looks at her lap, flexes her hands.]

I fought them. She was - the sacrifice. She was my friend. I fought them enough to mess it up. Warned her, held them back just enough that she could kill me first. In an old barn nearby, instead of at the tree. They were howlin' fit to burst the sky when she got me, so I don't figure that worked so well for whatever they were wanting.

Sugar please, ma'am.

video

[antithetic]

[ They haven't actually spoken since the port, and Leia hasn't decided yet what to make of what had happened there. If the normal Gertrude is anything like who she'd met there, that explains enough about what she's doing on the Barge as an Inmate. But of course, for a temporary assignment, Leia doesn't have her file, so it's not her place to go speculating out loud on what Gertrude is doing here and what she needs to learn in order to move on.

Instead, she has a calm, almost brisk tone as she reaches out. ]

I'm sure you've already seen that we've been temporarily assigned. I also spoke with the Admiral -- we should meet and review his responses, and discuss if you need anything from me this month.

Re: video

[archivisnt]

Very well.

I don't intend to ask anything of you as a warden, but I would be interested in discussing your results.

[She sounds just as brisk. If Leia isn't going to bring up their unfortunate interaction, Gertrude won't be the first to do so. She was, after all, not quite herself.]

My room or yours?

Re: video

[antithetic]

[ Leia's not trying to avoid the subject, it just isn't relevant and is taking a backseat to what she sees as more important issues. ]

Up to you. I have a small sitting room we could use.

[ If Gertrude has something private about her cabin she'd rather keep to herself, Leia is willing to give up hers instead. Her conversational tone does nothing to reveal that her cabin is, in fact, revealing and personal. ]

Re: video

[archivisnt]

That sounds ideal. I'm afraid I only have one room.

[And while it is, in fact, her office -- with a couch and a cot moved in -- it's a touch cramped for entertaining visitors.]

And your room number?

video --> spam

[antithetic]

It's 1-14. I'm there now if you'd like to come over.

[ From the hallway, Leia's cabin door looks almost startlingly like it belongs there, a smooth metal spaceship door, until the observer realizes it doesn't really match the Barge itself. Inside after the door opens is a small sitting room as Leia had promised, decorated with a refined mix of restrained, high-end art and hand-carved furniture, and impossibly machined futuristic metals. There's another door, this one wooden, on the far wall leading to her bedroom.

Leia herself doesn't invite any comment on it, merely steps aside to let her in. The narrow room has comfortable seating set around a coffee table and a personal desk tucked in a corner with Leia's datapad on it, and not much else.

She walks over to retrieve her communicator beside the datapad instead of sitting. ] Why do I think you want to start with the Admiral's response?

spam

[archivisnt]

[It's a pleasant room: Gertrude glances around with an air of approval, her gaze lingering on some of the art before she takes a seat on one side of the coffee table. She folds her hands on her knee, watching Leia.]

Could it be because I already turned down the offer of any warden-related favors?

[Her tone is dry.]

Do start with the Admiral's response, please.

[voice]

[corkscrewed]

[ martin's been asleep for- a long time, and he knows it. this is so awkward, but... ]

Hey. Um. So. Did you hear Jon's inmate graduated?

Re: [voice]

[archivisnt]

Yes, thank you. Jonathan did inform me.

[She pauses, as well, then adds:]

Congratulations, I suppose?

[voice]

[corkscrewed]

I... guess? I haven't really, um, seen it yet. [ he lapses into a brief silence, and then- ] There's still a lot of work to do.

Re: [voice]

[archivisnt]

Exactly what was the situation there, now that it's no longer... what it was?

Are the entities back in their box, or was he asking for something more final?

[voice]

[corkscrewed]

He just, um. Un-did it, I think? We've just got to focus on not letting it happen again, I think.

[ he exhales. ]

But I learned a lot while I was back home. I don't even know what we should be wishing for anymore.

[voice]

[archivisnt]

Once a successful ritual has been devised, I'm afraid it can only be a matter of time before some fool rediscovers it.

May I ask what you've learned?

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner

[agoodsoldier]

Hello,

I just wanted to reach out and see what you needed.

I'm your warden this month.

No worries! Sorry about the delay replying...

[archivisnt]

Oh, there you are.

We may as well get to know one another. Where are you?

Re: No worries! Sorry about the delay replying...

[agoodsoldier]

I'm in the library. Would you like to join me? Or, I could me you elsewhere.

Re: No worries! Sorry about the delay replying...

[archivisnt]

Oh, let's not speak in the library. Come to the fifth-floor common room instead? I will meet you there.

[She's in her own cabin; it's not far, either.]

Re: No worries! Sorry about the delay replying...

[agoodsoldier]

Certainly. I'll be there soon.

[He is.]

[archivisnt]

[She's seated on a couch in the corner of the room, legs crossed and hair pulled up into a bun with a sharpened pencil thrust through it to hold it in place. Her glasses hang from a chain around her neck, leaving her pale gaze unfiltered as she looks at Tup with a cool, evaluative expression.]

Do have a seat. I believe it was 'Tup'?