30 - Filthy malcontents, everywhere
Mar. 31st, 2012 11:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
umgekehrt[The man looking out of Stildyne's comm is a great deal more attractive than its original owner. The same age, but he obviously started out pretty and wound up pretty; he has long dark hair, braided on each side of his face to keep it out of his eyes. His clothes are sedate, your standard trousers-and-tunic combination, but a flash of red shows at his throat-- a red ribbon like a collar or halter, inside his shirt. There's an air of serenity to him.]
[When he speaks, the accent is a flat everyculture mixture like Stildyne's-- just prettier, and touched with an edge that might put Earth-folk in mind of Russian.]
Good greeting, all. I'm Cousin Ferinc, looking after things for Chief Stildyne while he's away.
Are any of his friends here?
And is anyone in need, due to the shakeup?
[Tags will be from
strayredribbon]
no subject
Date: 2012-03-31 11:37 pm (UTC)...I think your friend and my brother are friends.
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Date: 2012-04-01 12:24 am (UTC)I'm not surprised. There's a lot of Brachi in your brother. [There's a little Haster in there, too. ...more Haster than Brachi, if he's being honest. It makes him wonder if they could have been friends again, like they were at Goltrane, if he'd never done what he did. If once he learned how, Stildyne could have showed him the same love and gentle brutality he extends to Hoffman.]
Angelina, isn't it, Cousin? Your brother mentions you often.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 12:44 am (UTC)[Cough. Not that he stalked the man who brutalized him, helplessly obsessed, repelled and infatuated at the same time.
The Saint gave him peace.]
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Date: 2012-04-01 12:50 am (UTC)[Does she sound sad? yep. She tucks hair behind her ear and lowers her gaze.] I believed in him I thought he was fixing things but I didn't think...didn't imagine it was this bad.
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Date: 2012-04-01 12:55 am (UTC)There is healing. Even for the bully, the brutal ones. There is healing.
I know a man named Fiska. He was afraid; he turned his fear into hatred. Hatred of the lesser races, of impure blood. The Saint healed his fear and he found peace. There's always healing.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 01:06 am (UTC)he was supposed to get married. He was supposed to have kids if I didn't...but I...He was supposed to dance at my wedding.
He was supposed to...I'm reading this and I don't know who he is! Is your friend still normal?
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Date: 2012-04-01 01:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 01:17 am (UTC)[Her eyes are moist.] My brother was so good.
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Date: 2012-04-01 01:21 am (UTC)It will be all right. And Brachi is looking after him.
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Date: 2012-04-01 01:22 am (UTC)...I'm glad that a lot of people who he's hurt aren't here any more but the rest..
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Date: 2012-04-01 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 01:38 am (UTC)...Tea? He wants me to- [she speaks to herself] Tea.
[And then she smiles]...Sure. okay. I think I can find it.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 01:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-01 01:49 am (UTC)Looking...bleary eyed and tired and exhausted.]
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 01:52 am (UTC)He smiles at his visitor and offers a hand.]
/I offer you the peace of the malcontent/
[That's high Aznir, which is close enough to reach out and touch Russian]
And I offer you the peace of the malcontent in Standard, as well. You're welcome here, Angelina; the Chief would want it that way.
[He uses 'the chief' not as a rank but as an affectionate nickname, as fond and personal in its way as Stildyne's given name.]
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 01:57 am (UTC)But Seth was polite too. Seth smiled at her too, and her brother. Her brother...She laughs a little nervously.]
Do...should I bow?
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:00 am (UTC)Not unless you want to. Women are sacred, and absolved from blessing the Malcontent. [A kind of religious politics; women who weren't Malcontent themselves had mixed relations with the religious order.]
Please come inside. You look tired; have you eaten? It won't do any good to let your blood sugars get low while you're trying to navigate a strange place.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:03 am (UTC)[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:12 am (UTC)[He gestures her to the low couch, the pillows near the equally low table to kneel on, any seat she liked. A lovely room, a far distance from his own existence-- the paradoxical spartan-yet-comfortable cell of a malcontent.
He brings the tea pot to the table, along with two small, bone-china cups.]
I think those from the afterlife have the hardest transition. I'm sorry. I was working on a world called Azanry when I was summoned.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:18 am (UTC)[It sounds like music. She takes a minute or so to get comfortable-somehow managing to be delicate despite her awkward movements. When she's finally comfortable she looks up.]
It's pretty. A lot prettier then where I was and that's..
Well most of that's a blur but working. What do you do?
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:22 am (UTC)I do the work of my patron, Saint Andrej Malcontent. What that work is and how I do it varies from month to month, day to day. Right now, I'm looking after the wife and child of an important man, while he's away.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:24 am (UTC)[She inhales] that tea smells...wonderful.
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:29 am (UTC)[A smile.]
But I'm not quite a bodyguard.
A teacher, to the young man, a confidant to the woman-- I help them with information. There are very good household security for them, but the Malcontent is there to aid in the things that standard security doesn't supply.
For instance, I listen to gossip channels, to make sure that nobody is plotting anything against them. I get information from several sources to make sure that nobody is slandering the lady's good name. Many other things.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:35 am (UTC)Do you like what you do?
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:39 am (UTC)The work can be hard. The discipline can be extreme. Though I love the family I work for, at any moment the Saint can call me away. I'm his slave and at his disposal.
But there's something else: the Saint saved me. The malcontent healed me when I was in pain, gave me peace from bitterness and fear. So the Saint, may he wander in bliss, has all my devotion. And the uncertainty and hard work are in his service, so I love them as much as I'm discomforted by them.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:40 am (UTC)A monk. A warrior priest then. Like those guys in martial arts movies.
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:42 am (UTC)[He projects an aura of that strange, tragic devotion; real faith and real skill, a touch of sadness even in his smiles and laughter.]
I even know a set of martial arts drills.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:47 am (UTC)[She stops] my ex-boyfriend was interested in those...martial arts kinds of things. I prefer non violence.
...Something...I thought my brother shared.
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 02:57 am (UTC)[He speaks comfortingly.]
He just... lost track of how much. He can remember.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:03 am (UTC)...I'm sorry. I'm sorry-I just...he's my brother. I knew he had problems I didn't think they were...as bad as they were.
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:07 am (UTC)Angelina, I know that it's bad, that it frightens you to see him so changed. But there are people who love him here. They're helping him, healing him, like the Saint healed me. There is hope.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:17 am (UTC)who. [deep breath Angie.] who is this Saint you keep talking about?
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:21 am (UTC)Saint Andrej Malcontent. The patron saint of the unwanted. Eight hundred years ago, he saved two criminals from being burned at the stake by making them his slaves, legally taking all their crimes upon himself. Today, he lives on in us, his servants, and we do his work. We heal pain where we find it, and protect the unwanted and unloved children of the Holy Mother.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:31 am (UTC)...I wanted my kids to believe things like that. My students. I teach.
I taught.
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:33 am (UTC)[He squeezes her shoulder softly, then removes his hand.]
You gave them more than that. You gave them choices, when you gave them knowledge.
There is always hope.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:42 am (UTC)...It's hard to sit here and feel so useless. I want my brother.
[her lip trembles] I want my big brother.
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:45 am (UTC)[The slightest shift of his body language shows his open arms-- not reaching out for her, but open just the same, a comforting, solid pillar.]
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:52 am (UTC)[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 03:55 am (UTC)Seven weavers for seven looms. All for the beautiful Dyraine. It is all right, Cousin; it will be all right.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 04:08 am (UTC)After a moment she looks at him, withdrawn with her big sad brown eyes, and sniffs.]
Being dead, you miss touch.
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 04:11 am (UTC)Then you may have all you need from me, Cousin.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 04:16 am (UTC)But she had been dead for almost a decade so her touch, raising a hand to touch his cheek, was unsure.]
You could just...
[she giggled like a silly girl for a moment] You have nice hair.
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 04:18 am (UTC)Why, thank you. So do you.
Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 04:48 am (UTC)You really believe in this hope and faith stuff?
[Her other hand goes to the cross on the necklace she's wearing...and drops a little sadly.]
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 04:51 am (UTC)Re: [Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 05:05 am (UTC)Help me.
[There's only one code for that.]
[Spam]
Date: 2012-04-01 05:06 am (UTC)