Same Old Song and Dance

Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Lent » Tue Oct 09, 2012 3:34 am

Notes. Useful things. You could leave them around. People would spot them. Worlds would change. Or they wouldn't. High rate of illiteracy had something to do with that. Had something to do with Lentham's job too. That was the difference between a Constable and a Detective Constable more often than not, the ability to read.

Anyway, she could leave notes. So could he. This one was nice and simple.

One name.

Jirai.

And it was crossed through. Next to it would be listed a time and place: one evening after the note appeared and at the shore of the lake, behind the Dagger. Was quite the invitation, really. Nicest she had probably received in ages.
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Jirai » Fri Oct 12, 2012 10:38 am

Notes. Notes were most excellent, were they not? Sometimes. When your target was not illiterate, that is. Jirai, of course, is quite literate. Moreso than most Myrkenites, and what does that say about Myrken?

Simple notes. Now, that was almost insulting. Jirai had reason to leave simple notes - that aformentioned literacy rate foremost amongst them - but really, if one was leaving a note for Jirai, one need not contend with that limitation! Insulting, it was!

Insult or not, one evening later, there was a lakeshore behind the tavern, and certainly enough shadow to hide a drow if, indeed, a drow there be.
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Glenn » Fri Oct 12, 2012 3:21 pm

Insulting? Absolutely. But not the way the message was delivered. No, the insult was in the message itself. A crossed out name. The idea that someone could eliminate her at a certain time, at a certain date, that it was a given. Ironic, maybe, that she would be more upset by the lack of effort put into it all. Frankly, he didn't care. Kurt Lentham stood in the light. Stood and drank from his flask now and again and waited. Would she shoot him with that crossbow from the shadows, never knowing the why or the how?

Maybe, but it'd be a waste. More than that, it'd leave her bored. A risk? But then what did he have to lose. At least she wasn't a demon. Notes said she couldn't kill right now. She killed him once, second hand, through a dream so long ago. What was another murder between old friends?
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Jirai » Sat Oct 13, 2012 12:01 pm

Jirai was quite confident that she could not be crossed out, so where was the insult in that? No, the insult was the lack of effort, clearly!

The insult was also, quite clearly, in the man standing by the lake. A washed-up drunk, one whose name she'd probably never known and certainly didn't care about in the slightest. Disappointing. There should have been someone -better.- More important. Someone worth shooting from the shadows. This one? Not hardly. Without moving, she heaved a dramatic sigh.

"Make it quick, I have councilors to kill."
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Glenn » Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:39 pm

Kurt Lentham stared down death and found it to be short and possessing poor complexion. Granted, it also looked a lot like the shadows she was lurking in but he had a good imagination. Saw demons everywhere. Would like to see a random goodwife manage that. Actually, probably not that hard to find a goodwife like that in Myrken. "Hn." Lentham exhaled. He took three steps towards those shadows. One. Two. Three. And then? Then he spoke.

"Way I reckon it," and just to frustrate both of them, he'd take a sip out of that watered down flask. "either you were afraid of the Marshall or it wasn't you that done did it." Simple logic. Only kind he could manage most days. Simple but he'd stand by it. Was standing here by it. "Leads me to ask then... were you afraid of the Marshall?"
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Jirai » Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:43 pm

She lounged. A challenge, of course, given the lack of things to lounge against, but she somehow managed it. Her own flask twirled in dark hands, a sip taken before it disappeared. "What in the nine hells limits you to those two options? Other, of course, than the drink addling your mind?" She rolled her eyes, sauntering a little bit out of the shadows. Red leather clad as she had been since Faeryl's arrival in Myrken.
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Glenn » Sat Oct 13, 2012 3:09 pm

"Pssshhnn." Was the strange noise that came out from his nose and lips simultaneously. It was some combination of scoff, exhale, belch, and admonishing somethingorother. It was neither very dignified nor professional but then neither was he. "Iffin it weren't for the drink, I'd only have one option, not two. Does all of us a disservice to mar its good name like that." Expands the mind, it does. Or kicks the mind into working because by this point Lentham's brain wanted to do anything but.

It soldiered on, somehow, maybe with a little sip to help it along. "It's like this. She was the Marshall, which sounds like martial, which is what she was. Saw her once, maybe, training the soldiers, pretty good. Not sure she could take Kaczmarek, but it'd be worth paying to see." and people did pay to see such things, just not here. Shame. "Good enough. Make things interesting for you. Iffin you can kill at all, which people in the know seem to doubt," and he'd pause and take a sip of the flask again, see if maybe she'd take a swipe, end the grief and pain and all that? Yes? No? If not, he'd continue. "You'd do it to her face. Make a show of it. Especially if you were going to brag about it later. Not sneak up and slit her throat. Less you were afraid, way I see it."
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Jirai » Mon Oct 15, 2012 11:30 am

She rolled her eyes skyward, a crazed giggle escaping her lips as she sauntered nearer to the Constable. "An interesting assertion. One wonders what you base it on." Whatever your name is. She smiles slowly, and there is nothing of insanity in her eyes now. "Perhaps I should remind you of a story. One assumes the drink may have erased this tale from what passes for your mind." A slender, gloved finger lifts, pointing just below the man's head. At his collarbone. "Aeryn Karolinger." She purrs. "A gem in your throat. A dagger in your back. Are we remembering, now? Are we remembering just how that dagger arrived? Not delivered from the front, oh no. Are you awake, Constable? Or do you dream?"
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Glenn » Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:11 pm

Dream. Lentham's dreams were strange things. Strange ever since around then. Ghosts of memories. Memories of ghosts. For the Constable it was all the same thing. He knew his dreams and that wasn't this. That didn't mean the world didn't swirl around him sometimes. His eyes would lose their focus for a moment at her words only to come back in with him seeming none the worse off. "Demons, Drow." His voice was a coughing thing. Maybe he was a bit worse off. "They're everywhere. They were in Karolinger, even then. Did you know that? You're a madwoman. Do you see them?"

Bit of spittle on his mouth as he held up the flask. "Give you a sip. Cures what ails you. Come on out into the moonlight." They could dance, even. Lentham was good at that. Good at stepping on drow. "Don't think you did it. That was then. Plenty of reason. Everyone for himself. This is now. You haven't killed in so long. You'd savor it." Then a long long inhale. "Could you kill a demon I wonder. Read the file, you know. Private thing, but I read it. Think the governor would stop you from killing things that weren't human? Doesn't seem like him."

The Constable was all over the place, teetering on some ravine or another.
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Jirai » Mon Oct 15, 2012 10:12 pm

"Ah, Constable, I fear I am far more sane than you are. It is -always- everyone for themselves. Then and now." Take that for what it's worth. "And I have my own." Her own flask, that is, dangling briefly from gloved fingers, another sip before it vanished. She laughed merrily. "What makes you think that the Governor's file is entirely accurate? Oh, it worked well enough. Temporarily." She giggled. "Have you some poor farmer stashed away that you'd like me to murder to prove my point?" She apparently found herself hysterical, from the laughter pouring from her mouth.
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Glenn » Tue Oct 16, 2012 9:13 am

"Think it's sad, really." Sadder than him. A wolf without claws. Batting against life with her paws. Almost a shame. She was feral though. Knew a thing or two about that. Still, she asked a question and received a shrug in return. "Governor might. Rather not ask him. Come with me to find some demons and maybe we'll see?" Priorities. Lesser of evils. She was a beast but one they knew. One with a chain. Wait, what was he saying? He took another sip of that flask. "Know her last words." He finally said, though he didn't say how. Cherny hadn't told him anything at all like that, but she didn't know it. "Tell me what they were and I'll believe you. Otherwise, you're just sad."
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Jirai » Tue Oct 16, 2012 11:54 am

Another roll of her eyes. "Constable, if you turn around I will certainly demonstrate for you how hard it is for one to say anything with their throat having been slit from behind by surprise. You know, because I'm such a coward and all. And why in the nine hells would I go with you to kill demons?"
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Glenn » Tue Oct 16, 2012 12:12 pm

"To prove that you can." Granted, he had to find the demons first. "They're the ones who killed the Marshall after all. You kill them with me and I can go back to the Governor and tell him that you killed her. No one will know better." Then he could go back into her dreams and maim her again. Everyone won, right? Then, a pause. "And anyway, i know her last word before the murderer slit her throat. While she was lurking in wait." Made sense, no?
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Jirai » Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:58 am

A finger held out. "One. I killed the Marshall." Another added. "Two. Even if I didn't kill the Marshall, why would I care to hunt down whatever did?" Again, a finger lifted. "Three. Why would I care if you went back and told the Governor about me killing the Marshall?" A giggle, fingers closing around her flask for another sip. Then she lifted the flask in the man's direction. "Oh. Five. I don't need to prove anything to you."
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Re: Same Old Song and Dance

Postby Glenn » Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:00 am

Four. The secret was found in the number four. Four dead Constables. Four shadows. Four questions. Four demons. Four. That's what she told him. Space in between the words. That's where truth was always found. Four. Muttered the word. A giggle. Did that have meaning? He stared at her. What did she know? What... "hnnn." Exhale. Drink. Steady.

"Hnnn." Repeat. Smile. Lentham spoke. "One, you didn't. Two, because everyone will know it if you don't get rid of what did. Three, because you wanted something with your list and I reckon it wasn't me. Four... four." And then he laughed, he outright laughed, a wheezing hacking thing. They were everywhere? Didn't she realize that? Maybe she had two shadows too but you couldn't see them in the darkness. Maybe the moonlight only showed one and the sunlight another? "How many shadows do you have!" He barked out, before coughing once more.

Another drink. Put the flask up at her. "Five. You need to prove it to you. I'm as good a witness as any." Perfectly good. Not slipping slowly towards madness, not at all.
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