Logs:Voice of Something Resembling Reason
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| RL Date: 22 June, 2015 |
| Who: Dee, Eadgyd |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Eadgyd consents to be a part of the Hoods; she has conditions and opinions. Dee mostly agrees. |
| Where: Private Workroom, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 24, Month 1, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Jemizen/Mentions, Paislie/Mentions |
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| Dee's hazel eyes rest on Eadgyd as she pulls the door to the small, unoccupied usually-private workroom closed behind her. She leans on the door only a moment before stepping into the room, abandoning control of the exit. As she steps, she pulls a deep breath. "What--" she starts, but seems to realize she's not sure what to say from there since she had been minding her own business sweeping the corridor without for her daily chore when Eadgyd approached. Her brows lift at the other girl questioningly, arms wrapping gingerly around her torso in a sort of self-hug. Cornering Dee was easy, all things considered. All it took was a few questions to a handful of people to lead her here, trappedin a private workroom with the other girl. "I'm going to help," Eadgyd states in a voice that's just a step away from monotone. "But I don't want to be asked why, I don't want to be questioned every turn, and I don't want any more candidates involved in this than already are." She ticks each demand off on her hand, tapping the pointer of her right against the fingers of her left. Her stance suggests that she's going for offense rathr than defense, challenging Dee to argue with her. The arms that had curled protectively around her shift away, down, to where her hands can curl primly together in front of herself. Her work clothes are hardly ladylike and Dee herself is only ever accidentally so, but now is one of those moments. When Eadgyd has finished speaking, the taller girl draws breath and when her mouth opens, what perhaps should be questions is only a simple, "Okay," before her lips press themselves together in a somber expression of questions unasked. Eadgyd waits with that aggressive posture, body angled as though ready to leap into the fray at any moment. When Dee's answer provides no challenge, there's an awkward pause as she attempts to gather herself up and settled into a more relaxed pose. "Good," is muttered as her shoulders drop and she slouches back against the nearby wall. "What are your plans so far, and what have you already done?" Dee waits, listening to Eadgyd when she speaks, and then shifts her posture just slightly. "I'm-- not..." She begins to explain, noting their fellow candidate who is only slightly more apt than Dee with tactical and strategic decisions of this ilk has begun go direct things with a smidge more expertise than Dee herself could offer. Still, she can give Eadgyd the run down, "They've started with small thefts. To see if they can, without anyone taking notice." She chews her lip, something about that obviously not sitting well with her. "If that works, they want to plan a bigger thing. They know it'll be noticed eventually, so if they make a single take... then it can stop and--" She shrugs. It's then, quietly, that Dee says, "If you wanted to tell me why you're doing this, I would listen," which isn't the same thing as asking says her innocent expression. "Someone will probably notice," is Eadgyd's optimistic assessment of their chances. Still, the girl who seems to be taking the whole thing so cooly dismisses this problem with a shrug. "They might watch a bit more. They might be suspicious. But as long as they can't pin it back on us, we can still manage something bigger. I'd have them stop soon, though. If they've proved they can steal a little, that's enough." She doesn't move from her slouched position against the wall, but in spite of that lazy positioning her pale eyes are alert and assessing. "If we're lucky, they think we've stopped and relax their guard. Do you have a plan yet, for the big one? Roles, positions, all of that?" Her eyes narrow as Dee dares to breech the subject of why she's doing this. Rather than giving theo ther girl an answer, she simply focuses a withering death-glare in the other candidate's direction. Dee chews her lower lip in the face of Eadgyd's blunt opinion, but only nods. See? She's not questioning at every turn. It's starting off on a good foot, anyway. "Okay," is answer to how the older girl wants things done. It's possible Dee will have to check with the other candidate, but from her willingness to just go along with Ead's thoughts, she probably suspects little to no resistance from that camp (and in fact, she probably looks a bit relieved). "Not... really." She admits of the big one. "Paislie-- she wants to help. She thinks she can take Lilah's key, and replace it. They've said," the others, "there's already signs of pickings on the locks, so probably no one will notice that we used a key for the big one, but it would save us time getting in and out." At least in that Dee continues to follow this vein, she seems unlikely to suggest again that Eadgyd share her thoughts on the forbidden matter (though she doesn't obligingly drop dead, sigh~). "There are people who've said they're willing to go in, to help carry if nothing else. And others to hand things off to to take them the rest of the way, but-- that's as far as we've gotten." Eadgyd taps one foot absentmindedly as she listens, bumping the front of her boot lightly against the floor at a fairly even pace. "Right. Paislie." If the dry tone weren't enough to convey her feelings on the matter, she throws in a roll of her eyes to drive the point home. But in spite of the thoughts that are practically written across her face but go unsaid, that eye roll is shortly followed by a nod. "Fine. Paislie steals the key. We hope she doesn't get caught and implicate us all on top of ruining things with her sister." So, maybe it doesn't all go unsaid. "We'll ignore that it doesn't actually save us time, since apparently you lot can't be talked out of that. Do you have lookouts, and set locations for their posting?" At this point she pushes away from the wall, beginning to slowly pace the workroom. Every so often she casts a glance toward the other girl, as though to see how she's handling all of this information. "Anyone who needs to be in a specific place for a long period of time, like a lookout, ought to start handing around that spot occasionally now. Make it something no one will glance at." "There's more than one door we want to get through, and lock picking takes times," Dee argues, which might be reasoned to not being questioning. But as Eadgyd is permitting them the win on Paislie's involvement, she falls silent after saying that much. "Lookouts, but not locations," the younger girl answers. "We've been arguing over what's most needed." Of course the have. "We have a few riders who are sympathetic lined up to take the goods and go as soon as we have them," she volunteers this next as she moves to replace Eadgyd against the wall, letting the shorter girl have run of the room without her bodily interference. Eadgyd groans and tilts her head back, squeezing her eyes shut as though that might somehow block her hearing. She might have agreed to the fetching of the key, but it's clear that she's not exactly thrilled by it. "Fine, we'll start figuring that out. We should start watching and recording foot traffic around the area. Making a map if you haven't already. We need as much information as possible if we want any chance of not getting caught." And from her tone, even that much is doubtful. As Dee's last words settle upon her ears, Eadgyd freezes in place, becoming a sudden stature. She turns ever so slowly on the balls of her feet to fix the other girl with a deadly stare. "You have riders? Are you stupid? Are they stupid? This is where their life is, Dee. Are you so focused on the plight of a few that you're willing to sacrifice the happiness of people you actually know?" One hand presses to her forehead just above her left eye, and she scowls down at the floor. "Fuck, this is ridiculous. Can't they just cart them off themselves, those people we're helping?" "Oh!" Dee has a moment of brightness (that could, today, be quelled with an appropriately timed look), as she relates, "Jem's been doing that for-- since the landslide." Certainly a while now. "The movements and who has access and what their patterns are like." She's obviously proud of her usually lazy brother's industriousness (even if it is while engaged in criminal activity). "I can show you everything he's done up. It's hidden," that's a quickly added preemptive defense. She takes a breath before addressing the most disagreeable point, "Lux's Ledge is virtually inaccessible this time of the turn by anything other than dragon," virtually, "we had no choice. And every one of them made their own choice, or would you take that away from them the way you wanted to protect Paislie from herself?" The younger girl sighs. "The riders won't tell. They're in this now, as much as we are." For a few moments, Eadgyd actually looks impressed by this news. In fact, there's even the hint of an upturn at the corner of her lips as she says, "Good. That'll be helpful. Tell him to be mindful that he doesn't stop now, especially with the small thefts going on. We might want to add another person to that duty to make sure we have as much information as possible." Better safe than sorry. A nod acknowledges the secrecy of Jem's work, before Eadgyd's brows lift high. "There's always another choice besides involving other people," the girl insists darkly, "They have so much more to lose than you, and every reason to give us away if it comes to saving their own skins. Are you really that naive?" She scoffs dismissively as she makes her way over to the other girl. While she may lack in height, the glower she's wearing might add to the intimidation factor. "A murderer makes his own choice, too. Should I not try to stop one, then, because he made his own decision? I probably shouldn't take that away from him, right?" "A murderer is an entirely separate situation, and you know it," Dee replies with an unimpressed look for the comparison. She might believe many things of Eadgyd but a lack of intelligence isn't one. "Do you really think any of us don't know there's risk? Risk that might leave us stripped of any belonging we've found or worse?" Okay, so probably some people don't realize that level of danger, but the quaver in Dee's voice says she's certainly thought about it. "They're not doing this for me, Ead. They're doing it because it's the right thing to do." So she would believe. One hand rises to scrub across her face. "But we're going to do it your way and no one is going to get caught, right? I'll do whatever you need me to do. I've already agreed not to involve anyone else." Intentionally. "Fine, since you feel the need to be so discerning in your comparisons, we'll just have a simple thief. He makes a choice to steal from someone, should I just sit back and tell him that it's a job well done? Don't deliberately miss the point because it makes you feel better, and don't fool yourself into thinking that you're anything other than a thief because you think you've found a worthy cause." Another roll of her eyes accompanies those scathing words. Although Eadgyd isn't backing down vocally, all that frustrated energy needs somewhere to go, and so the girl resumes her pacing at a fast clip. "They are doing it for you," she returns as her gaze snaps to Dee, "People don't want to disappoint you, so they do things they wouldn't otherwise do. Do you think for an instant that Paislie would have volunteered to get the key from Lilah without you prompting her? No. Someday, you'll realize that all of this falls on your head. Whatever the consequences, whatever the fallout, it's all on you. You asked these people to do this for you. I hope you're ready to handle that, when it comes." Just for a moment, there's a hint of sympathy among the stern words as she pronounces those last few syllables. But it's there and gone in a flash, replaced by a hard laugh and a shake of her head. "No one is going to get caught in the act, Dee. But we will be caught eventually, especially now that dragons are in the equation." Dee's fingers flex into fists. It's not motivated by rage or anything so passionate, but rather by a need to do something with the tension in her shoulders. When she says, "I know," to Eadgyd's first point, the weight of the two words that should be simple make Dee seem turns older than she is, and sadder than she has cause to be in this moment. She swallows hard and forces her momentarily faraway gaze back to Eadgyd. "But better I become a thief than a Hold full of people perish because no one's bothering with them." That she adds quietly, "I asked them to do the right thing. Not to do it for me," must be because she needs to believe it so. Nevermind that in the moment, she sounds like the belief is brittle and ready to break. "We'll only take what they need. Just enough to see them through." She's at practically a whisper now. Another reflexive swallow precedes her turn toward the door. "I have to go." Possibly to throw up. "I can show you what we have later," but she won't do it now and she doesn't seem likely to be waiting for a response before pulling the door and slipping out. Sympathy is not forthcoming, at least from this end. Eadgyd remains hard as stone, fire in those pale eyes and a grimace on her thin lips. "And have you heard the Weyr's side of this?" she asks quietly, adding, "Have you asked whether depleted stores will see us through, or have you assumed there's wealth here because we're a Weyr?" That last is tossed out as Dee moves toward the exit, to give the other girl something else to carry on her conscience. While Eadgyd's restless pacing hasn't ceased, it has slowed down to a less breakneck speed as most of her frustration expels itself through her tirades. She takes a deep breath and exhales, staring at the ceiling. "Alright," is her grunted answer. She glances only once at Dee's retreating back before she resumes her pacing, round and round. It will be some time before she emerges, leaving no chance that they'll cross paths again until much later. |
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