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Post by Ylanne on Oct 1, 2020 19:11:33 GMT -6
"Somehow, I get the feeling she'll refuse any offer to move in somewhere. She won't want to feel like an imposition or a burden. And if she doesn't have enough money, she'll find a way," said Ahmad. "She always does. I just shudder to imagine how many threats, or I guess it could be favors, it takes." The old woman seemed to be owed favors across half the galaxy or more. Of course, she'd also collected enemies spanning the galaxy too. "But about parole... I hadn't heard anything about that. On the one hand, it sounds a lot like wishful thinking. False hope. On the other... The Director doesn't really seem like the idealistic type. So maybe." He allowed a note of hope to enter his voice.
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Post by demikara on Oct 1, 2020 19:16:24 GMT -6
"We'll know closer to then. And we'll talk to her more then, I guess, about it all. Hopefully she'll agree to move in for a little bit at least, when she first gets out." So she'd have a place to spend the first night, at least, that wasn't some sort of shelter. "And I'd like to get my hope up but...it's hard." It was hard staying positive at all right now. Arianne was in serious trouble. It wasn't going to magically get better any time soon. She had nine more years to serve out. Seven minimum, if she was allowed parole, which given her crimes she may not be.
"She does want us to continue living our lives. That's another reason she didn't want us to visit too often."
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 1, 2020 19:34:25 GMT -6
"I don't understand." Ahmad squinted, looking up in the rain. The clouds had darkened further, the wind whipping up faster. "She's been my boss for the last couple decades. We go over her house on Sundays - when she's not traveling for work. I've done Christmas for her. And I'm... well I'm obviously not a Christian. How does she think we're supposed to keep living our lives ... as if she's not even there anymore?" It was bad enough when he'd believed she was dead. The first time by public execution. The second time in prison, so close yet impossibly far from home. "I understand the desire not to want us to go there, maybe. But it feels self-defeating, and honestly, more than a little self-destructive. Isolation can't be good..."
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Post by demikara on Oct 2, 2020 7:34:39 GMT -6
"Hopefully she'll make some friends. Once a month was all I was able to get her to agree to though. Honestly, just the walk to the superintendent's office seemed to tire her out some. At least she still has a cane." That had been something to be thankful for. A cane wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. And it was, she suspected, all that Arianne would ever agree to using. Besides, she really only had the one usable hand. A walker wouldn't work at all, even if they could talk her into it.
"I don't think the prison is going to be good for her. We'll have to write often."
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 2, 2020 14:53:45 GMT -6
"At least once a week," Ahmad agreed. He reluctantly stepped back inside the building, dripping water all over the floor. A security guard looked aghast at him. "Do you actually make friends in prison though? I mean, assuming you do have a chance to actually talk to people while you're even there, that is." He leaned against a statue in the hall, to a disapproving look from a soldier. "It makes me wonder actually... Do you think she has friends? Personal friends. I don't think I've seen a lot of evidence of too many of them. I honestly don't even know if we have all that many friends anymore... What kind of lives are we living?"
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Post by demikara on Oct 2, 2020 15:00:21 GMT -6
"We have each other." Aerilyn pointed out. "And we have Arianne. Though I suppose I could stand to make more friends outside of the people I know from Gambit's huh?" Seeing them inevitably meant going back to Gambit's to meet them there. "Maybe we should consider trying to make more." They really didn't have that many close friends did they? Arianne still regularly talked to Harriet from Gambit's, and occasionally to Cryo, but that was about it. Otherwise, her world was work and home. But they didn't have friends that both of them had, not really. Ahamd was friends with some of the people he played games with, she thought, but it wasn't quite the same.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 2, 2020 15:33:46 GMT -6
"Maybe so," said Ahmad, dubiously. "Where do we go to make friends though? None of the people I meet at cons ever really write back..." They'd probably all looked him up and decided they did not want to be involved with a deputy director of intelligence - too intimidating, and too potentially risky for their privacy. "I love the old woman dearly," he said, "but I've seen how ... lonely she can be. How few personal friends she seems to have. People kind of gravitate to her. She's got a certain type of charisma. But there's a difference between having people and having friends. And all I know is I see this in her, and I worry that the same thing could happen to me. To us. I don't want that for my future." He shook his head. "It also worries me about her though... I can't share much obviously, but I heard something about her having to be away from the general population - and I hope she's not too isolated."
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Post by demikara on Oct 2, 2020 15:40:22 GMT -6
"She's in Unit E." Aerilyn said. "She said there's other in her unit. So even if she cant' be in the general population, it sounds like there are others there. That's good right?" she wasn't completely alone. "And I don't know. Maybe we could join some sort of club? Or some kind of game night?" Something like that might be doable right? It had to be. "I can probably pull a few people together for board game regularly. Maybe." It depended on a lot of things. Such as if her coworkers would even be interested in it at all. She didn't know how to go about making friends.
You had to choose people and spend time with them. But how did you determine who to spend time with to begin with?
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 2, 2020 17:14:21 GMT -6
"Try it and tell me how it goes," said Ahmad. "I can always cook something. Maybe other people will give me compliments like you do." He smiled. A passing soldier gave him an incredulous look, and Ahmad knew he looked ridiculous, his hair still dripping from the rain outside, his nice silk tie totally ruined. "Do you have a long way back? I feel like it had to have been several hours away that last time we drove out there. But I don't really remember all of it..." He'd tried to forget. He supposed he could understand the old woman's motivation in not wanting them to travel there much - it couldn't be a pleasant memory for her either. Though he'd have thought people in prison would be excited to see people they loved on the outside. Maybe it was just her in particular. "I'll make something special for dinner. Maybe you'll forgive me after? For not telling, and avoiding risking my clearance, you know."
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Post by demikara on Oct 2, 2020 17:18:45 GMT -6
"It's a four hour drive. I called as soon as I got to my car." She admitted. "But I would absolutely love some sort of shepherd pie. You make a wonderful version, when I can bully you into making it." Which wasn't often. Normally she was perfectly content letting him choose what to cook out of whatever they made. But she did love shepherd pie as a treat now and then. "And I could be talked into forgiving you. I'm afraid the cost is many kisses and a home cooked meal." She knew he couldn't risk his clearance. She didn't like it at all in this case. She should have been told somehow. But he had done the best he could, she supposed, and not stopped her when she headed out.
That was the best she could hope for, under the circumstances.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 2, 2020 17:44:40 GMT -6
"That I think I can, my dear," Ahmad said, smiling and cheeks flushing a bit despite himself. "One shepherd's pie coming up, tonight, house special for the lovely lady in the front. And then an evening not soon forgotten." He lowered his voice, adding, with a dramatic flair, "And then, whatever the lady would like for dessert - and a movie - and perhaps some dancing if a guy can get a bit lucky." They didn't dance much, and especially not in public, but the living room made a great impromptu dance floor if they shoved the couch all the way to the wall and moved the table out of the way. The old woman would sometimes dance with them too, a slow waltz that seemed to remind her of better days.
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Post by demikara on Oct 2, 2020 17:48:54 GMT -6
Her cheeks flushed and she smiled brightly. "I think, perhaps some cheesecake. And some dancing sounds wonderful." They didn't dance often, but she loved dancing with him. It was quite a treat. She was incredibly lucky to have him as a husband. "I think you could get lucky indeed." The could dance and enjoy themselves. A nice night together almost as a date to make up for not telling her. It sounded absolutely lovely. "I'll have to hurry home."
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 2, 2020 18:48:56 GMT -6
"Hurry back, and then maybe we can talk more." Ahmad's heart fluttered despite himself. But he stilled it, and realized the gravity of what he had just said. He'd just about promised Aerilyn he'd be willing to share more when he got home - at least something. Jeopardizing his entire clearance. His career. But who else could he confide in now? The old woman certainly wouldn't tell him anything now. She couldn't. Their conversations - of all others - would no doubt be closely monitored. If by no one else, than by the Bureau itself. The Bureau had to take care of itself. The Bureau had to know what all the old woman was still doing. Ahmad needed to take care of his needs. He needed his first and closest friend. He needed Aerilyn.
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Post by demikara on Oct 3, 2020 20:31:20 GMT -6
"I'll see you soon then. I can't wait." It sounded like they had a wonderful evening ahead of them. Aerilyn had not picked up on him planning on telling her more at all. "I should concentrate on the road. Traffic is going to get pretty heavy soon." For some reason, people who didn't live in Wing City went into Wing City. They were all nuts. Then again, Aerilyn lived in Wing City and had very little room to talk about when it came to sanity in where you went. Though the fact that there were days she missed Gambit's was probably more concerning.
It was a much simpler life as a bouncer. All she had to worry about was being intimidating to idiots, which was a breeze when you were carrying a rail gun, and kicking out drunks, which, so long as they weren't magic users, tended to be easy as well. The other magic users she had a habit of knocking out first.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 3, 2020 20:44:56 GMT -6
Another week had passed since she had returned, and the old woman felt well enough to walk around the yard's perimeter twice before her knees threatened to revolt. In that time, she had been offered a hit of an interesting Holkarth drug, threatened with imminent collection of an offworld mafia's bounty on her head, and propositioned for participation in a dubious threesome. She had declined all of these requests. Otherwise, the prisoners in her unit mostly left her alone - she saw them, of course, sitting together at tables in the common room or out in the yard, walking together. She also saw how they lowered their voices and turned closer in on each other when she approached. Drulović recognized two of them - a former mob enforcer, and a former member of Parliament - but she did not know either, and they'd both stood and left each time she'd approached to broach conversation. So she paced the yard alone until returning to her cell, where she wrote letters to old comrades in arms, who would respond through less than official channels, and letters to her daughters, who would never respond.
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