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Post by Ylanne on Aug 23, 2018 12:31:46 GMT -6
"I'm fine, Aerilyn," Drulović replied with a dismissive gesture. "I prefer it this way, for now. I can't have too much longer in this cosmos, and frankly, I can't see much purpose in spending money on unnecessary furniture." She leaned back in her chair, sipping from the cup, looking rather calm, if not entirely content. The sweet aroma had quickly filled the small space, even with one of the kitchen windows cracked slightly open. "There's a video, you know, from the second occupation. It's supposed to be my execution -- I imagine it was a kind of psychological operations tactic of war. I actually find it rather amusing now, though certainly not at the time they made it. Have you ever seen it?"
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Post by demikara on Aug 24, 2018 11:11:28 GMT -6
"I saw it when it aired." Aerilyn murmured, pale now. "God, I was terrified. I told myself it couldn't be true, but it sure as hell seemed it." She admitted quietly. She had not handled her mother-figure, the closest she had to a mother-figure, the woman who had given her away, having...having died in front of her like that. Aerilyn had not been aware it was merely propaganda at the time. A breeze picked up in the house and a few loose leaves whirled in, dancing in a whirl dervish in mid air, captured by the aeromancer's magic. she swallowed and wrapped her hands tight around the tea cup.
"It was effective as hell. Until it had been confirmed false, twice, the entire bureau was..." Well, the bureau in exile had been sundered by grief. The confirmation attempts had kept them moving for awhile as had their other intelligence work, now more important than ever, but the entire bureau had mourned until it was confirmed false. "Some of the recruits were convinced you were immortal when it turned out to be false. Some of the veterans refused to believe it until we had seen your body with our own eyes."
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Post by Ylanne on Aug 24, 2018 15:29:38 GMT -6
"Immortality is one hell of a drug," Drulović remarked, setting her teacup on the table. It was almost empty by now, the liquid forming a thin line below the rim. The cups had a simple floral image on them, lavender or rosemary or perhaps both. "I'll confess I'm grateful not to suffer from it."
She eyed Aerilyn curiously. "It's an interesting exercise, you know, to imagine and put to words what things might be said about you at your funeral. It was strange, to be presumed dead while still very much alive, a kind of living burial. In spycraft, we don't have the luxury of surreal abstraction too much." The old woman placed her hand flat on the table, looking directly at her friend. "Tell me, what things do you imagine might be said at your funeral?"
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Post by demikara on Aug 24, 2018 15:37:36 GMT -6
Aerilyn paused and thought it over. She had never even considered doing so. Her birth family was gone and she as glad enough for it. Her chosen family was...well, she had Ahmad and his family nor, and Drulovic. The aeromancer mulled it over, what she would like to be said at her funeral. "It's not something I ever considered." She had never considered dying even when the invasion and fighting had been its worse, even when her squad had died around her and she had been the only survivor. Aerilyn had been surrounded by death most of her life. She had never assumed there'd be anyone to mourn her. "I'd like them to say I was kind I think, and brave and I suppose that I'd be missed. That's all I can think of. And I'd not like there to be any mention of my magic or my deafness." She didn't want to be limited to just that, or to having overcome this or that.
The other had put her rather on the spot. This wasn't too uncommon for their conversations though. A comfortable conversation with Arianne was a rarity, or at least a completely comfortable one. "What about you? What do you imagine would be said?"
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Post by Ylanne on Aug 24, 2018 15:51:39 GMT -6
The old woman shook her head with a rueful look. "I have no need for imagination," she said, taking the teacup and swallowing the last of it. "I've been called just about everything by now. One morning, I might find myself a hero and a patriot owed unending gratitude, and another, I'm a genocidal war criminal little better than Gina Inviere."
Empty, the cup clattered on the table as she set it there, her chin lifted slightly to look upward at Aerilyn.
"Then there are those who said, when they believed it to be true, that my death hasn't come quickly enough, and that karmic justice was long overdue." Drulović sighed. "It's all true, you know, at least partially, anyway."
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Post by demikara on Aug 24, 2018 15:56:06 GMT -6
"I suppose you would know, wouldn't you?" The other had 'died' as realistically as possible in the worst possible way. Aerilyn sighed and considered what else there was to say. "I'd black the eyes and break the nose of anyone who compared you to that bitch though, given what she's done to...to an entire planet." Aerilyn had met orphans from the glassing, who had lived outside of the glassed zone and still lost everything because of the power of the attack that had been launched on their planet. Children who had survived when their home had collapsed on them and their family. It wasn't even an uncommon story as it should have been. "I just ask you don't usher in your own death." The woman was firm on that. "Regardless of what others may say, Ahmad's world and mine are richer for you in it." Much richer.
Still, this conversation was truly dark and the aeromancer grasped for anything to talk about at all. She could think of nothing, and she fell silent, uncertain. Her friend seemed fixated on death right now. It was unfortunate, and Aerilyn hoped there was no true reason for this. Hopefully it was just the thoughts of an old woman. Firmly, she resolved to visit more often. It surely couldn't harm.
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Post by Ylanne on Aug 24, 2018 19:47:19 GMT -6
Drulović did not speak for a long time, nor did she move.
When she stood, abruptly, she took the empty teacups to the sink, and began to wash them. She treated each chipped and faded cup with the delicacy owed the finest glass, and cleaned until no spots remained. She returned the cups to their rightful place on the cabinet shelf, and then did the same for the kettle -- washing, drying, and returning.
She did not speak all through this process.
Once finished, Drulović turned toward Aerilyn, half-leaned against the wall, and asked, in a voice only slightly louder than a murmur, "And what gives you such right to make that request?"
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Post by demikara on Aug 25, 2018 6:40:04 GMT -6
Aerilyn silently watched the other. Nail on the head then. That..that wasn't good. The murmur wasn't caught by her wind, though she didn't wear her beret so wouldn't have caught that way regardless, or by her hearing aid. But she could mostly make out what the other said, reading her lips. what...you...right...request. The deaf woman bit her bottom lip and filled in the blanks as best she could. What gives you right to request? there had been two words. make that request? Dammit, the other knew she was deaf.
"Love." she answered. "Familial love. Being selfish as well. That gives me the right. You're free to refuse, but coming here to visit, finding your body shattered by your death? Suicide is never a peaceful death Arianne." Gods knew she had considered it herself, had looked into it multiple times, trying to find the best way. "I'm not one hundred percent on what you said. But my right to request is the same right that let me ask you to give me away. It's the same right that has me visiting as often as I think I can get away with it."
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Post by Ylanne on Aug 25, 2018 7:27:36 GMT -6
Before Drulović could respond, several small knocks sounded at the door. She called that it was open, and two children tumbled inside, shoving the door wide as possible. They smelled of grass and mud and daisies. Without prompting from the old woman, they rushed to the oven, pulling open its door and retrieving the pan with near fresh-baked cookies, greedily shoving crumbs into their mouths. They hardly looked askance at Aerilyn, a stranger.
"You might say 'please,' you know," Drulović chided gently. "It's not polite to rush or grab."
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Post by demikara on Aug 25, 2018 8:00:24 GMT -6
"These must be Julie and Safira." Aerilyn said, smiling at the sight. Perhaps her and Ahmad? Well, she wasn't sure she even could. The wars had been rough on her, rougher than she liked to admit. Her poor husband worked hard to help her cope with what was, no doubt, some form of PTSD. The deaf woman didn't bother get diagnosed. Most of Terra had some form of PTSD. It was a given, wasn't it? She glanced to Arianne.
"These two may also be a reason. They come in so readily." Imagine them finding her, was the implication. Given Arianne didn't seem to believe in locked doors it was possible. The children of Terra should be as sheltered as possible given the horrors of their planet.
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Post by Ylanne on Aug 25, 2018 8:09:27 GMT -6
"You don't see me as I am, Aerilyn," said Drulović. "You mistake me for living." Her voice was quite calm.
Whrn the children had slowed in their eating a bit, Drulović looked between them and Aerilyn. "Julie and Safira, twins, if you can believe it." One of the girls was light and pale, with bouncing red curls, and the other was dark brown, with textured hair in braids. "This is my friend, Aerilyn Rayburn-Jones."
The children muttered hellos but had little interest in the stranger.
"Terra will not need me forever, and if it does, that would be a terrible mistake for the future of this nation."
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Post by demikara on Aug 25, 2018 8:20:40 GMT -6
"Then live. Get out and do things. No one on the street will believe that you are you, if they even know what you look like." Aerilyn pointed out quite calmly. "Join a knitter's circle, if you're determined to be an old woman." She teased gently. "The choice of how we live is one we make." The other was very clearly depressed. Aerilyn smiled at the sight of the twins. "And I'm going to assume fraternal twins. I could be terribly wrong of course." Genetics was a weird and wonderful world.
She smiled. "Come to dinner tomorrow? I'd be happy to host you. We can have some Ethiopian dishes a friend taught me recently." She'd have to buy the spices for them, but it was a good dish and she had a feeling her friend would like it. And Terra didn't need anyone forever, not really. But it didn't need to lose such a proud patriot either.
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Post by Ylanne on Aug 25, 2018 11:51:35 GMT -6
When the children were finished, they licked the remaining melted chocolate from their hands, then smudged wet hands against shirts already somewhat muddied. Their father, outside, was calling for them.
"Thank you for the cookies," Julie and Safira spoke in overlapping voices, nearly having forgotten the pleasantry.
When they'd left, the door not quite closed behind them, Drulović shook her head. "I'm afraid I won't be able to join you. I leave the city early in the morning tomorrow, as Ms. Khayyam requested I join her on some quixotic voyage." Her eyes wrinkled a bit. "Unfortunately, I must suffer a gaggle of fools these next few weeks, but of course, the ability of the Terran people to elect such fools is core to our Terran democracy." Drulović sat, deliberately, in one of the rickety chairs.
"I'm fine, Aerilyn," she said, her tone dismissive and firm. "Besides, I have enough enemies to last most people several lifetimes. I only hope that whichever of them comes for me at last will deliver a clean kill. Poison would be dreadful and quite unnecessary, and an explosive would certainly be overkill, while knives leave entirely too much to chance but for those assassins most adept at their use. I'd far prefer a one-shot kill to succumbing to further disease or withering in some prison, but of course, I'd hate to be the victim of some inadequately trained sharpshooter or one whose sights are imprecisely aligned."
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Post by demikara on Aug 25, 2018 12:05:14 GMT -6
"Then let us know when you've returned. We can host you then." The other was not fine, not if she was dwelling on her death this much.Still, the words she spoke were horrible enough. Aerilyn knew well that the same future face her husband, one where there were more enemies than allies and an early death was a near certainty. Aerilyn planned to do whatever she could to combat that, for both of them, though she didn't know what all that she could do. She was one person, and there were two of them and neither would do well swaddled in wool and kept safe, nor would they thank her for it.
"I do wish we wouldn't elect such fools myself. Good luck on your voyage?" And may it not be as impractical as the other seemed to think it was.
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Post by Ylanne on Aug 25, 2018 13:20:31 GMT -6
Drulović laughed, but there was little warmth ot joy in the sound. "All of politics is really some kind of fool's errand. I've never wanted any part of it."
She stood then. "If you don't mind too much, I've a suitcase to fill before the trip, unless you'd like to help with the laundry." The single suitcase in the living room seemed full, but just behind a door off the kitchen, a large basket sat mostly hidden and full of unwashed clothing.
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