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Post by demikara on Oct 14, 2019 11:22:38 GMT -6
"A life of travel. That sounds wonderful. Even for a few years, it would be a respite from all this." There was a moment's thought and she smiled. "But I couldn't leave you so unattended. That would break my heart too much. Perhaps I'll try the bus route. It's bound to be interesting." And sedate enough Ahmad couldn't find too much to worry about. "And yeah. He's a worrywart sometimes." She adored him though, even when he worried.
"I think a middle school class room may be more dangerous than Gambit's though." Certainly a lot more draining.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 14, 2019 11:42:13 GMT -6
"Oh, Aerilyn, I'm no lit candle or baking cake, nor some needy toddler or petulant adolescent in need of supervision and attention," said Drulović with a small smile, though even making that minuscule expression still stoked the smoldering pain that lingered in her jaw and cheekbones. "Go." She gestured with her eyes, flicking upward as if to indicate the direction Aerilyn should go - out and away. "After Mr. Fazari has fulfilled his duties to the courts, the two of you will have all the time in the world to travel wherever you like. I have no desire to become some burdensome and resented encumbrance on your lives. You have too many years left for both of you to live and enjoy what pleasures you may." And the old woman certainly had her own private amusements, along with what demons came to taunt her in the night in her solitude. That had been so for her long before Andrade's violations or Olson's inquiries, too.
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Post by demikara on Oct 14, 2019 17:19:16 GMT -6
Aerilyn hesitated a moment. "I suppose it would be okay. But you have to tell us immediately if you're too lonely." Or too anything. They could come back from their travels. "And I'd have to talk to Ahmad first too, and we'd have to figure out how to do it. So it's a ways away regardless." It wasn't something they could just drop everything for after all. Travel like that was a big thing to plan. She smiled and considered thing. "And I know you don't need supervision and attention. But I want to be there for you."
It wasn't a burden and she'd have no way of convincing the other of that at all. The other tended to think lowly of herself, or so it seemed. She shouldn't. She was dear to Aerilyn and to others as well.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 14, 2019 19:08:07 GMT -6
Drulović inclined her head, her smile warm. "I appreciate that, Aerilyn, truly," she said, heavy-lidded eyes resting on the younger woman. She set her hands back on the table, careful to avoid a position where the metal handcuffs might dig into her skin. "I'm not too much more lonely here than I was before the indictments," she said, shrugging lightly. She was intimately familiar with loneliness and solitude. "Mr. Drulović comes to visit, as do some others from the Bureau. They do not seem to know what to say to an old, old friend who is sitting in prison and waiting for trial, and I'm afraid I have no balm to offer for their discomfort." Mostly they all seemed torn between pity and unease, and the old woman resented both. "And of course, I am constantly beset by summonses from Parliament and the Ministries, to tend to their sordid and tiresome affairs." The old woman sighed. She should have been long since retired from service by now. "You'd think they'd be quite done with me by now, but I suppose they haven't yet had their fill. I rather think some of the MP's came to peer at me like some curious caged animal in a zoo, though I'd make a strange exhibit." Her eyes crinkled again with a small sad smile. "You and Mr. Fazari have plenty of time now to make your plans. You have many years and adventures ahead of you, waiting only for you to embark. Besides, my azaleas have no need of your tending now. Mr. Drulović tells me one of the neighbors has started to offer them attention. I suppose they belong to the entire neighborhood now. You can be free of them." And free of the old woman herself, she thought. "And you, Aerilyn, what gives you joy the most, or sparks your wonderment? You ought seek that in your living, travels or otherwise. Focus on the better, brighter things."
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Post by demikara on Oct 15, 2019 15:57:21 GMT -6
Aerilyn considered the question for a long minute, knowing her friend would wait for her to speak. "Protecting people. That's why I worked at Gambit's. Protecting the patrons who weren't rowdy, weren't dangerous. That was the majority of them, despite the bar's reputation." She managed a small, uncertain smile. "I don't think I'd be able to get a new job doing the same sort of thing. I'm a bit older than most people think of when they think of protectors. But I suppose there must be something."
There were older protectors out there. Arianne was certainly one of them and she was twice Aerilyn's age. The aeromancer smiled softly at her friend. "There's a lot of jobs around that in Wing City though. So I'll be sure to find something soon enough." And it would be wonderful when she did.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 15, 2019 16:23:33 GMT -6
"I have faith that you will find what you seek," said Drulović, nodding. "We share that desire to protect others, you and I, though perhaps we've pursued it in different ways." In the harsh light, the shadows were deeper and more angled along her cheekbones and beneath her eyes. "How much longer will you need the sling? I trust you have good doctors to take care of you while you are recovering at home?" The old woman did not mention to Aerilyn how long they had to wait to see the doctor, or even a nurse, at Wrentham, how they had not yet checked on the screws that would need to go inside her knees, how they were casually ignoring a woman down the hall whose cancer might go metastatic if not treated soon. She did not want to worry her.
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Post by demikara on Oct 15, 2019 16:28:59 GMT -6
"A week or so. Then I just need to treat it kindly." She said and smiled to her friend. "Are you recovering okay here? I know there were problems with your care early on, but you've been here long enough that surely they'll be more willing to help now." And if not, Aerilyn would force the issue. She planned on forcing it regardless given how her friend certainly still needed a wheelchair and wasn't getting one.
Aerilyn would worry regardless of what the other said of course. She knew that Arianne would try and downplay it. That was jsut who the woman was.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 15, 2019 16:54:29 GMT -6
"Then take the time you'll need to rest," said Drulović, her tone like that of a mother hen watching carefully for her flock. What smile had rested on her face while Aerilyn had spoken faded now. "I've been doing what I can for myself here. I'm fine, really. I am eating, at least sometimes, and I can manage the hallways when I need to move in them though I'll confess it's hard sometimes." She had fallen only the day before, when she'd been in the common room and not able to return quickly enough to her cell for the first afternoon count. "It's cold and it's mean, but it's livable. I make do."
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Post by demikara on Oct 15, 2019 16:59:42 GMT -6
Translated that meant they were treating her better than the Aschen had but they still weren't treating her right. Aerilyn could read between the lines well enough. "I'll try again to convince them to give you softer food." That was at least part of the problem, probably. "And I'll try again to get you a proper blanket, so you won't be so cold." There wasn't a lot she could do other than keep trying. Surely eventually she would wear them down in some small way.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 15, 2019 17:08:24 GMT -6
"Aerilyn, I don't need or desire for you to take care of me as an invalid," said Drulović, looking pained at the younger woman she thought of as like a daughter. "We the older generation are to care for you coming after us, and not the other way around. This is not your responsibility. I do not wish it to be. You are injured and at a crossroads in your own life. Your husband has more need of you than I. You have more need of yourself than I. I am fine." But her eyes, clouded with pain of more than one kind, betrayed the lie. "It would be better for you, I think, to come to this place less. It's too sorrowful, and I'm afraid I'm not good company besides. You need your own time to recover and thrive."
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Post by demikara on Oct 15, 2019 17:45:55 GMT -6
That stung. "I'll still come often. But not as often." She was pushing too hard. "But I'll still worry about you." The other was in a state. They both knew it, but she was fussing too much she supposed. "I'll be fine, you know. Ahmad fusses over me enough for two people, you know." She wasn't smiling now, not able to. "I'll recover just fine, you know. And fidn a way to thrive again." She just had to find a position that suited her.
She had no clue what position that would be.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 15, 2019 18:33:56 GMT -6
"I'm sure of it, Aerilyn," said Drulović, with a sharp nod. Where she'd grown up on the farm, the roaming farm dogs, between baying and howling and whimpering for attention and morsels of food, they all knew the dogs would crawl far away from the people and even the other amimals, looking to be alone, curled in on their bellies when they knew it was time to die. And the barn cats, when injured, no matter how grievous the wounds, tried to hold themselves stiff and tight, in hopes of avoiding further attention or attracting predators. It occurred to Drulović that she looked like an injured barn cat, the way she held her posture now, her shoulders, her jaw. And she knew Terra would bury her just as soon as it had birthed her, and while it terrified her the thought of dying alone, like it did most people, she thought the look on Aerilyn's face seeing it would be worse. And Aerilyn, unlike her, would have to live with the sight forever afterward. "I want what will be best for you in your life. I want you to receive what you deserve, and I know that you deserve much. I am fond of you. You are a light in a dark world grown darker."
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Post by demikara on Oct 16, 2019 11:27:41 GMT -6
Aerilyn's cheeks flushed at the compliment and she offered her friend a smile since she couldn't hug her. "Thank you. I love you too, you know." She didn't have such pretty words to say it in, but she could say the words well enough. "You're incredibly important to me. To Ahmad as well. We want the best for you, even under these circumstances." Even when the other was imprisoned when she should be resting at home, healing in peace. Even then, they wanted the best for her. "Though I suppose it must sound odd, coming from someone younger than you." It didn't make it less true.
A light in a dark world grown darker. That was a huge compliment.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 16, 2019 11:42:20 GMT -6
Drulović's look was tender and wistful, marked with pain, but revealing little of her inner thoughts. She was surrounded by a darkness, heavy and smothering. "I appreciate your kindness always, Aerilyn," she said, her gaze resting somber on her interlocutor. "But let me not become some loathesome burden on you, which I know I would become in turn, if you try to yolk that load to your shoulders and walk with it, though you do not believe me now. You and Mr. Fazari ought live free of that encumbrance." And then the old woman could keep her suffering and anguish quiet and private, and not inflict it on those around her. She did not want them to witness that. "Besides, I believe I have a visiting call late this afternoon with the prosecutor's office, come to disturb the evening again. I can't say I look forward to it." Her brow was drawn.
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Post by demikara on Oct 16, 2019 11:47:17 GMT -6
Aerilyn wrinkled her nose. "I'm sorry. I wish you would get a lawyer though, for all these talks." She wouldn't, but Aerilyn could still wish. Still, the other...Aerilyn didn't want to think of her as a burden or an encumbrance, but she couldn't deny that was very possible, that she'd eventually grow tired of the visits and the care. "Or at least to enforce that your needs are met." They weren't now. She was thinner every visit and Aerilyn had noticed it. She didn't know what to do about it, but she had noticed it.
"I should let you have some peace before your call this afternoon, shouldn't I?" the other needed rest. She likely wouldn't, but she needed some at least.
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