Igraine

A Cold Wind Blows...

PM right back at ya Scoundrel, and SO good to hear Numerica! Bon appetit, and good luck with the interest check!

A Cold Wind Blows...

That sounds just wonderful, Numerica, and so glad that your headache is gone in the very nicest way! Sunday school with the preschoolers - so much fun!

And stop putting off the writing Numerica - get on it. Now. Right now. Reward yourself with a 1x1 interest check on the other side of writing your scene, right now! Or better yet, reward yourself with thoughts of Lillian's baking on the other side of that writing - honestly, she's freakin' amazing! *grins*

My day is quiet, just checking back here at RPG every once in a while to see who's said what in my RPs, whilst relaxing and reading the second book of the Sharpe novel series for fun! Emphasis meaning, of course, that reading for fun hasn't happened much of late at all *shrugs*

Penny in the Well (Jiskastya x Igraine)

Ahhhh... I see! Well surely you can't expect me to know things you don't tell me, or misread what you do? Bree's personality has pretty much been out there on her sleeve all this time - you probably could have seen her furious blow up coming from a mile away, I imagine. But I honestly have zero idea how draw anything of Ethan's out in the open or start to develop a relationship of any kind between them, particularly after he rebuffed all her approaches - humorous or serious or anywhere in between - when they finally spoke on the riverbank.

But that's really no matter. The way I wrote Bree, of course there is more depth to Ethan than the surface selfishness. And the demand for the suicide sounds just fine with me. I imagine that this note is something that only Ethan will inevitably be able to determine?

Penny in the Well (Jiskastya x Igraine)

Well talk about crossed lines! But I'll let the edit stand, it really doesn't change the context or content much at all.

And for what it's worth, I left any threats or demands wide open, so sure, why not? Let the demand for Jacob's life be the suicide of the father, however you'd like that to be delivered to him. That's absolutely horrible, so of course it will work just fine with me!

Penny in the Well (Jiskastya x Igraine)

That's really how he is? God above, he really is such a man-child, isn't he? And I don't know that Bree was trying to get him to change - she can't read numbers after all, and gauge how her words work or don't work - but simply horrified and disgusted that an honest plea to help save a life turned so badly. She was in the U.S. Army, and is now an FBI agent - her entire mind set is geared to serve, protect and save. She honestly cannot fathom ordinary people who don't think the same way.

And there we go, edited at the very end and I hope it works? Even if he does let her walk for the moment, he'll have the bits and pieces to mull over, to perhaps come to the realization if you like, that if Victor were alive and testified in federal court as he was meant to, one child might not be dead, the other one, in all likelihood, about to be as well.

A Cold Wind Blows...

WOOHOO! So excited for evil Russian babushkas!

And Scoundrel, were you still interested in doing any kind of coordination before we start?

Penny in the Well (Jiskastya x Igraine)

So glad that was a fun bit of writing for you too, and yes, Ethan completely had it coming.

I have to admit, I'm at a loss though, how to make this any more about Ethan than this already is? What Bree is saying right now, aren't just insults to pop off, like when two friends/lovers are angry with each other trying to hurl the most hurtful thing they can think of. Yes, she's pissed, but not because Ethan "hurt her feelings." She is furious and terrified for the life of a little boy, and stunned that his moral compass is [apparently] so stunted, he can't see this.

This is her honest assessment of Ethan to date, not a fit of pique because he left the toilet seat up again. Bree doesn't know that he saved her life the first time with the bullet - he's hidden that away. The second time around, she wound up pulling him from the river he took them down, talked to him, gave him the chance to explain, swallowed the most impossible thing she'd ever heard and then jumped through every bureaucratic hoop known to man to get his former life back, arranging for everything to be put right with the feds (all while knowing very well that "Ethan Sampson" was a false identity - who the hell has to go to Denver from Washington state, just to get their "real" identification? )

So yes I can edit, I'm not sure where you want me to do so? Well, without completely breaking my character as well, because in no way would Bree be cool enough in this moment to "rationally appeal" to anyone.

What if, perhaps, Ethan does watch her walk away - but then has a dark midnight of the soul or some such and comes after her? If she can find him, surely he can find her as well. At some point during the attempt to retrieve the boy, he assuredly will discover that this mob is the same one that Victor had turned on, and that Victor's defection from this particular crime syndicate (which might have brought down the entire organization if he lived) predicated such vile measures.

Masques and Daggers (Derren Krenshaw & Igraine)

Galina told Souma not a single lie that portentous day in his cultivated forest, while they both bled out on the meticulously manicured lawns. Hasekuro Soshitsu was not a brave man, and some small, cruel part of the spy relished the sheen of sweat that was forming over his forehead and balding pate. Galina rationalized that she had to take some tiny piece of enjoyment from this moment, since gutting this man where he stood was entirely out of the question. He still had his uses after all, as well the sweetest, most good-natured wife whose love he did not deserve in the least, and two young boys who, thankfully, seemed to be taking after their mother in looks.

No, Hasekuro Soshitsu was not a brave man; yet in the same vein, neither was he a stupid one. Galina should have known better than to stride in here with her demands, wearing her true emotions on her proverbial sleeve - that had been quite foolish. Galina. Shizuka. Calm. At this very moment, she had betrayed her namesake in two different languages.

Even so, and fortunately for her, for all Soshitsu's intelligence and shrewd ambition, his naked fear made him equally foolish - yet without the insight to realize this salient fact. Without even realizing what he had done, he had already answered the majority of her questions on the matter of the Takahiro clan - all, of course, but the ones she most truly needed to know. Which two of the trio - father, daughter or son - had survived; and where were they now?

Galina followed the flicker of his gaze toward the backroom door to his office, and guessed his calculation in an instant. "No, you will not have time to call your guards - or at least, not enough time for you to live through the attempt. Your wife is a beautiful woman, and your children a true delight. There is absolutely no reason for me to leave a widow and two orphans behind me when I leave Tokyo." Galina sighed softly, as if oh-so put out by the thought, and then slowly smiled, now the humble, sweetly shy smile of the charming Shizuka as she bowed to the man still sitting behind his desk.

"But you are right, Mr. Hasekuro," she continued as she stood straight once more, the enchantment of her voice calming, soothing music that floated and lingered in the air between them like a rich and heady perfume. "There is tension here, tension in this city, and I fear you and I may have gotten off to a poor start today. This is entirely my fault of course, and I take full responsibility."

And as she spoke, Galina glided across the room,slowly, carefully, laying her gloves on the desk as she moved to stand behind Soshitsu. "You simply have to understand, Mr. Hasekuro," she continued as her strong, slender fingers lay lightly at first on his shoulders, and then began to knead at the knot of muscles she found there through the fabric. "Please understand, that I was right there at the Takahiro compound when they were attacked. I was hurt, you see, and spirited away before I could find out what had become of the clan." The pout in her matchless voice could be heard quite clearly, a small sad ring of hurt as she made a swift shot in the dark, though not entirely without consideration. Yury shared all the information he had gleaned between the two, near-simultaneous attacks after all. "Besides, surely you cannot mean all Westerners are not welcome? You must have meant that Americans are not welcomed in the city at the moment. And I am merely a simple Russian woman after all."

"And yes, of course all our dealings have been good and lucrative, for the both of us," Galina continued as her knowing, practiced fingers pressed just so against the tender muscles at the back of Soshitsu's neck. "How terribly rude of me, to be so selfishly one-sided on this matter! I will gladly, gladly, repay what must have been terrible losses to your brokerage when the Takahiro compound fell. I know very well, there is a substantial sum that remains in the accounts that were to go to my family's estate... "

Galina's voice trailed off as a painful lump threatened to choke her words and close off her throat entirely. Swiftly she closed her eyes, taking a long, calming breath before she could speak again, picking up once more immediately as if for that space of a precious few seconds, nothing at all were amiss. "Yes, there was a great deal left in those accounts, was there not? Before the transfers? Oh, I've no use for it at all you know - I never have had a head for business. Not like you, of course. Why, I could certainly sign over the remainder - a gift, you see. A gift to a man who has been so very kind to a poor foreigner in a strange land."

"And in return? In return all you will ever have to do, is expend no more than a few puffs of your breath, and you will see me no more."

Her fingers gently stroked the short hairs at the back of the man's hairline, ignoring the sweaty wetness there as she considered for a moment[/i all she had gleaned to this point. There was a genuine fear she could feel singing through the very muscles of this man. She was impatient already for answers that, given her own way, she might have carved from this fat little man's pasty flesh. But the fear, it was damn near palpable, and Galina simply had to wonder. There was only one person of the Takahiro clan, who knew this cowardly little money changer even existed.

"Tell me truly, Mr. Hasekuro, because my curiosity is simply boundless on the matter," Galina whispered as she bent down just enough to rest the curve of her chest lightly against his back, the soft skin of her lips barely brushing the tender skin of the man's ear. "Having personally known the company of both men in very close quarters: between Takahiro Souma and his Fist, Daisuke - which of them do you find most terrifying?"

Penny in the Well (Jiskastya x Igraine)

Now of course I can change anything in this last post - even delete it entirely and start over again if you don't like it. I only figured she managed to make contact, because Bree does manage to kinda screw with his numbers a bit, and it was instinct, not a thought on her part.

So again, if you no like? I can change easily, as much as needed. ;)

The Last Kings of Orion

I hope it's a good heartbreaking Kuro; that it's a good read that also happens to be heartbreaking too Thank you so.