Jonnie ⚜ Merritt (angryjonnie) wrote in thegalaxy, @ 2016-06-06 10:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | !locale: naboo, dee, hannah vizari, madalena |
this is the weight of my conscience
Who: Hannah, Dee & Maddie.
What: The Rat Queens meet up with one of Dee's coven sisters.
When: Following this.
Where: refugee village
Rating: PG-13 because swearing
Hannah followed Dee back into the refugee village, the two well warmed by their drinks and happy with each other's company. If Hannah didn't know any better, it would have felt like being back in Palisade, but for the notable absence of Betty and Vi. Now after finding Dee, she was loathe to let her go running off into danger on her own.
"So where is it that you have to return to?" She fell in at Dee's side, the two making a slow progress deeper into the mostly empty village. It was getting late, and most were at home, leaving the streets clear.
"Wherever Issan is, I suppose," Dee said. She walked close to Hannah, their shoulders touching, forcing her into the tactile reassurance the priestess had missed far more than she had realized. Alcohol made her words come more smoothly, made her perhaps more open and honest than she had been before. "And Madalena, too, another new member of the coven. I don't know if we'll go back to where we were, or find another place… there's no shortage of new locales here, I can tell you. And I assume we'll have to move to keep the Order from finding us."
Hannah's brows rose. "Just three of you? And you don't know where any of each other are? That seems a little sloppy."
"No, no. Maddie's here with me. She went with me to see Kiah earlier." She stopped in the middle of the alley, her hands reaching for the elf's. She bypassed the mention of their small number, unwilling to enter a fight she knew she could not win. "You should meet her. I really think you'll like her. And who knows, maybe she'll help you have a little more faith in what we're doing."
The elf's eyes rolled upward, and she shrugged. "It's not like I've got anything better to do around here right now. Let's go meet your witchy sister."
Maddie strolled through the streets of the village, her holoreader casting an eerie green glow across her features. She frowned at it, reading the responses to her latest public writing. Her hood had long since slipped back from her face, but she hadn’t seemed to notice.
The arrival of Dee’s husband had made Madalena more homesick than ever. Marriage was a mistake she probably wouldn’t make again; it was an archaic and ridiculous waste of time anyway. But Gareth -- him, she missed. She had taken it for granted that he would follow her, that he would find her, and join her on her quest to greatness, to real power. But either he had followed, and the rift that swallowed her was gone now, or … well, that was enough of that thinking.
The holoreader lit up more brightly, a small icon announcing a new message for her on the net. The village, it said. Where are you? I want you to meet someone. -D
Madalena smiled. She looked around and saw only a few people still shuffling around the refugee village; most of them were either stumbling drunk or hurrying back to their quarters. None of them resembled Dee. She pulled up the message and tapped out a reply: Just left the market. Heading toward village entrance now. M.
Perfect. We're about a block away. Lost my cloak so look for me, haha
Madalena read the message and dipped her holoreader back into her bag, focusing her attention on the stragglers around her.
Dee looked over to Hannah, a small smile playing on her lips. "She's really close, actually," she said. She took the lead, not a pace ahead of Hannah, but clearly confident in where she led. She turned once, then twice, moving through the winding alleyways with a slightly intoxicated but purposeful stride. She beckoned Hannah closer as they rounded the bend, and the village's entryway came into view. Small houses huddled close together, making the wide lane seem somehow cramped. Her eyes swept the dwindling crowd, soon landing on one familiar shape.
"That's her," she said, nodding toward the cloaked figure. She waved.
Hannah glanced to the figure; Maddie looked normal, human. She bit back a remark, instead deciding to wait and see how Dee's coven sister introduced herself.
Dee’s wave caught Madalena’s eye and her smile widened. She returned the wave and headed toward her friend and the stranger with her.
Madalena hugged Dee, then stood back and took in the new face beside Dee. She stretched out a hand. “I’m Madalena,” she said pleasantly.
The elf glanced at the woman's hand, then back to her face with a quizzical expression. Then she grasped Madelena's forearm with a strong grip, releasing it in the next moment. "Hannah. You from this galaxy?"
Madalena looked stunned. Her eyes narrowed a bit but then she decided to write off the unusual greeting as another cultural difference she had yet to understand. She’d discovered a lot of things lately she’d need to learn more about.
“No,” she said. “I came through the rift. And you?”
"Same. Same as her," Hannah replied, jerking her head at Dee. "Though this place is about as fucking different from Palisade and Mage-U as a hippocerf's ass is from a knocker. You see like you're adjusting pretty well, considering how you both signed up for the first circus that flew through."
"Hey." Dee pushed an elbow into her long-time friend's ribs. She looked to Madalana. "Don't mind her. She calls my old faith a cult and my new one nearly the same."
“It’s fine,” Madalena said to Dee. She turned to Hannah and her smile suddenly seemed a little less warm, less familiar. “With practice and ambition, it can be easy to see which wagon to hitch your horse to, as my people would say. I’ve got some of both,” she said.
Hannah arched a brow. "And you think you found a winner? You guys are attached to someone who's part of the biggest bag of dicks I've seen in awhile. And believe me, that takes effort."
Madalena couldn’t help herself; she burst into laughter, her gaze bouncing between the two women. When she did manage to compose herself, she brought up and hand to dab away the tears at the corners of her eyes. “Ah, yes, well,” she said, clearing her throat. “Your opinion is noted.”
Dee rolled her eyes. "And discarded," she added. "Attached to is not the same as part of. We've been mercenaries enough times to know the difference. Haven't we?" She tugged at Hannah's arm. "Let's get somewhere we can actually talk."
She led them down a series of alleyways, to the small hovel she and Madalena had subletted from a temporarily absent refugee. It was not impressive or expansive by any definition, but it had plenty of food and wine, and was nondescript enough to provide the camouflage they needed. Dee ushered them inside, shutting and firmly locking the flimsy door behind them.
"More wine?" she offered. She moved into the tiny kitchenette, letting her self-appointed task busy her body and mind.
"You really have to ask?" Hannah's eyes raked judgmentally over the small space but for once withheld comment. "Guess this is where Issan stashes you guys while you wait? Or did you guys just decide to lay low here? Naboo isn't the most secretive place right now, from what I gather."
Madalena swept her hood the rest of the way off her head, dropping her cloak and bag on the floor at the foot of her cot. “We had our own business to attend to here,” she said.
"It's okay. She knows about Kiah," Dee said. She came back to the common area -- only a pace away from the kitchenette, and a small pace, at that -- and handed each woman a glass of wine so red it looked black. "I decided on this place. I'm being frugal, but more than that, I really don't want to attract the Order's attention again."
She returned to the kitchen's tight space, pouring herself a glass before moving back to her friends. "Issan doesn't know exactly where we are right now, though she can still reach us via holo if she needs. I am taking precautions." She cast a pointed look to Hannah. "I trust Issan, but this way she knows nothing that could be forced from her. Which I don't put past them."
Hannah canted her head with a raised brow, then turned her attention to her glass. She drained a fourth from it. "The more I hear about them, the better they sound."
Turning around, she took a few steps in the small space, studying for no reason other than she felt antsy. She looked back to Maddie and Dee. "So where is this planet that Issan wants back? She must have some pretty crazy mojo if she thinks she's gonna be able to carve out her own little space rock."
"She does, actually." Dee set her glass down after taking a bolstering sip from it. Moving to her cot, she knelt beside it, rummaging beneath it. She pulled a bag from where it had been hidden out of sight, under a small mound of boxes and clothes. She opened it as she brought it back to the other women. "I probably shouldn't show you this," she said, withdrawing a heavy book from inside the pack.
Madalena sat on her own cot, back against the wall. She crossed an arm, propping her wine glass up near her mouth. Her face may have been unreadable, but her eyes betrayed her concern. This didn’t seem like the best idea, but -- hell, she’d been wrong before. She stayed silent, replacing the dissent on her tongue with wine.
The edges of the book’s pages were old, frayed in places. It was a comfort to Dee in a galaxy where paper was an unknown substance; having something she could hold, something other hands had touched before hers, was a sensation she had dearly missed. She placed the book on the table, her hand firmly atop it.
"The planet is Dathomir," she said, "and this is how we're going to get it."
Brow arched, Hannah approached the table with zero hesitation. She glanced from her friend to the book she was so closely guarding; the elf was no stranger to artifacts, her mother having been a collector of ancient elven culture. One more glance seemed to ask permission before her fingers reached out to touch the pages herself. It wasn't old; the binding was fresh, or at least a few decades fresh, compared to the centuries old tomes Mage-U had in its archives. She pulled it toward herself and flipped it open to a random page, spidery script and hand-drawn pictures filling its entrails.
"Yeah, this doesn't look sketchy at all, Dee," Hannah replied, frowning. Despite her words, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the pages, and her brow knotted in concentration as she attempted to read some of the script. "How much of this have you learned?"
“Just a few things,” Madalena spoke up. She looked to Dee over the rim of the glass in her hand. “Enough to keep ourselves safe while we’re on our own.” Madalena gave a nonchalant shrug.
Hannah glanced to Maddie, then back down to the book. "So what's the power source? What exactly are you guys contacting to be able to pull off shit like this?"
"I know you've heard a lot about the Force since you got here," Dee said. She hesitated then, looking down to the page, touching its edges as though they might grant her strength. If Hannah had disliked what had come before, she was certain to hate what would soon follow. Dee gritted her teeth, already bracing for the inevitable use of the word she so despised.
"The power this draws from comes from powerful wielders of that force. For the sake of familiarity let's call them gods. The Daughter is the primary force we're interested in, but she's gone by other names, and she's not the only one." She held up on finger, already knowing it would do no good. "Do not say cult."
"If it quacks like a duck, Dee," Hannah replied, flipping through more pages. "OK, so it's not too different from home. I guess it just depends on what these things want from you in return. Do you even know?" She fixed Dee with a look that was just shy of a glare.
Maddie’s own piercing gaze radiated from the corner of the room.
"Well…" She shrugged. She reached for the comfort of her wine glass and its contents, searching for an answer within them. She knew she had shared more than enough; the dead man and his severed finger would do nothing to help her case now, and likely quite a lot to hurt. "Not entirely. Not yet. But if it rids us of N'Rygoth, it'll be worth it. Especially if I can help rebuild something the Empire destroyed here as well."
Hannah frowned. "It's amazing how quickly you've gotten hung up on whatever the fuck's been happening here. You don't even know these people, or what's been happening, Dee. You're not even from here."
"And I don't know if I'll ever get back to where I am from." Dee set down her glass. Unshed tears danced in her eyes, but the set of her mouth was hard and unyielding. "I read the holonet. I see these people blink in and out, sometimes over and over again. Whatever life we had before is completely different now. What happens here will affect us, now and possibly in the future, either until we die or just in bursts from now til then. Why shouldn't I be hung up on that?"
Madalena rose, finally, lightly squeezing Dee’s shoulder as she passed to place her now-empty glass in the tiny sink.
The elf pulled back, though disapproval was still clear in every line on her face. She looked back to the book, flipping through it until she found a description of the previously discussed deities. Her eyes moved over the pages swiftly, only glancing at the information within.
"Well, at least this chick doesn't sound like a grade A pain in the ass," she muttered, turning another page. Here she stopped, her gaze fixed to whatever was drawn there. "And here's where shit gets scary. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised." She let the book flop down on the counter, revealing a drawing of what looked like a blob at first glance. Further inspection revealed a monster that held people in its grip, devouring them one by one. It held a human over a great maw, teeth lined in a circular fashion around its mouth ready to tear the poor man asunder. "I guess shit doesn't change wherever we go."
She put a hand to her face, rubbing the spot between her eyebrows. "I guess you guys could be worshipping worse things. This Abeloth character sounds too close for comfort like N'Rygoth."
Madalena cast a disinterested glance across the page. Though she would never say as much to Issan, many of the tales and illustrations they’d heard and seen were just faery tales to Madalena. She placed as much stock in them as she did talk of men with donkey’s heads and other such nonsense the villagers used to frighten their children with. They were cutesey folk tales, symbolic morality plays and nothing more.
“Advancing a cause is not the same as worshipping it,” Madalena said. “And there are a great many unpleasant things people are called upon to do in the interest of survival. We’ve done what we felt we must do, and not without heavy consideration.”
Dee cut Madalena a look equal parts gratitude and fear. She bit her tongue, searching for something to fill the void before Hannah could ask questions too piercing for comfort.
"Please, Hannah. Have a little faith in us. What happened to the Nightsisters was terrible, and we're trying to make it right. All we want is a space of our own, away from this bogined galactic war." She sighed. "And if we can find a way home in this book, or on Dathomir, so much the better."
The elven sorceress glanced between the two women, feeling a little outweighed and not at all concerned by the fact. She finally held up her hands in a gesture of surrender, her chin dipping toward her chest.
"I still reserve the right to say I told you so if this all goes south. But seeing what kind of a bind we're in, obviously we need to try as many avenues as possible." Her gaze came back to Maddie. "Magic, the Force, whatever you wanna call it, doesn't just come from nowhere, and it definitely doesn't come without a price. If you haven't asked this Issan person what it is she expects to give this thing she's advancing once she's gotten what she wants, well, more the fool's you." She finally returned to her wine glass, chugging down its contents. Then she found a place to sit.
"So tell me about some of these spells you've tried so far."
Madalena scoffed. “I’m not entirely certain why you think your approval of our actions is something to be sought after, but I assure you, at least for myself it most certainly is not. Furthermore, I see no reason to apprise you of everything we’re involved in when your disdain for it is so obvious, but if Dee wants to fill you in, she’s welcome to do so.” Without waiting for a response from either woman, Madalena retrieved her wine glass, refilled it, and returned to her cot in the corner.
Hannah listened to Maddie's spiel, and then laughed. "Whatever makes you feel better, cupcake. Gods this is a fucking trial." She balanced the empty wineglass between her fingertips. "I don't give a shit what you do with what I say. I'm just saying, mostly because I care about her," and here Hannah shoved a finger in Dee's direction. "And you just happen to be here, so guess what, you get to listen too. Or you can go walk out the fucking door, you know? I mean, wherever you're from, you do know how to use those, right? Bilford Bogin."
“If it’s such a trial,” Madalena said, her voice measured despite her rising anger, “why are you here, then? Your attitude about everything, really, doesn’t say what you probably wanted it to about your affections for her.” Madalena narrowed her eyes. “If you’re here for her, perhaps you could attempt to show that by doing something other than belittling and mocking her every decision. But then, I suppose classless, callous wretches like yourself aren’t familiar with the intricacies of meaningful relationships. Poverty does tend to strip the mind of its more sophisticated uses.”
Hannah rocketed out of her seat, her wineglass hitting the floor with the sound of breaking glass. "You're going to have to grow a much thicker skin if you think you're going to survive out here. Lemme guess, Dee and your witchy leader have probably been propping you up, am I right?" Her voice was growing louder with each syllable. "Fancy yourself a deep well of potential that's yet to be tapped. Gotta say, you haven't said much to impress me that you're worth any of the trouble that Dee's going through for all of this. Is it any wonder why I'm saying you're gonna be first in line when there's a hungry ass demon at the end of all of this?"
"Enough!" Dee's voice was a scream, ragged at the edges. White-hot energy crackled around her balled fists. Her stance had widened, feet shoulder-width apart; her body was primed for a fight even as her heart froze into a hard knot. "Both of you, stop." She wheeled on her fellow Nightsister, her hair a black halo around her stormy face.
"Maddie, that is absolute bullshit and I better never hear it come out of your mouth again. Hannah has saved my life and the lives of other classless wretches like me more times than I can count. I've spilled and shed more blood with her than I will with you in another decade, so show some respect for a Queen. If anybody can help us, it's her. And you." Dee barely drew a breath as she turned to face Hannah.
"I know what we've seen before. I know it can be bad. But this can be different. Madalena's got real skill, and she's learned quickly, and Issan and her family have helped so much. We're already making artifacts here, Hannah, like Mage-U could, but with just the three of us. Objects of real power. Just think what we could do if you helped us. Think what we could take back to Palisade."
For the first time, Madalena actually felt hurt. Her face fell, but she recovered quickly. She rose, pulling her pack from the floor.
“A queen?” She laughed, a quiet, dismissive sound, and reached in her pack to pull out a finely wrought crown. Intricate golden vines wove around broad leaves and robust bunches of shimmering grapes. Deep purple jewels caught the light and cast starlight around the room. “A queen indeed.”
Madalena dropped the relic back into her bag, nestling it among what remained of her worldly possessions. She paused for a second. “Have you ever thought to ask what I left behind? To ask what I sacrificed to become who I was? Or how much blood I’ve spilled, since that seems important? To show me any respect?” With her last question she cast a pointed gaze at Hannah.
She tossed the bag over her head. “If her help is as useful as her advice has been so far, I am not the least interested. I wish you both the best, and I suppose I’ll see you when we meet Issan. Perhaps your friend will be there as well.” She slid past the other women and started out the door.
"Maddie, don't." Anger drew Dee's body taut, but she reached out for Madalena's arm all the same. "You both need to give each other a chance. Or at least be quiet long enough to work together. We're no less worthy than you just because we took a title nobody was going to give us, and you're going to have to deal with that." Her voice softened, but only just. "There's nobody you want on your side more than her, believe me. She's not asking anything we shouldn't be asking ourselves."
“No one gave me anything,” Maddie said, wheeling. “That’s the entire point here. She shows up, parading around, puffing her chest out as if she knows anything at all about this situation, about me --” she stopped, taking a deep breath and collecting herself. She straightened and slid her hand from the doorknob. “I didn’t become queen because I was ‘worthy’.” She stopped again, unexplained tears threatening to fall. “I wrenched my throne and kingdom from the hands of an insane, entitled, misogynist manchild and ran the entire thing better than he could have in his pathetic daydreams.” Her eyes bounced between the other women in the room. “I’m no less capable than you just because I wore a pretty crown. You want me to respect you both, to listen to you both, and I would have, but neither of you are willing to do the same for me.”
"We are. But you took the first and cheapest shot. Since frankly I don't feel like pulling you two off one another, I stepped in." Dee looked from Madalena to Hannah. Something pleading stood bright in her eyes. She hated herself for it, and could find no other expression to replace it. "So let's just all have a seat and a long, deep breath, and start again. Can we do that? Like rational adults?"
Hannah held her hands up, having taken a step back to view the situation as it unfolded. "Fine. I'll behave myself. But if I see something I think is a problem, I'm going to say something. If that's gonna be an issue, I might as well leave now."
Madalena bit her tongue. She pulled her pack off her shoulder and walked back to her cot, returning the bag to its place on the floor. She said nothing, her face blank and unreadable, but felt herself withdrawing, the damage already done. It had been a long time since she’d made the mistake of making herself open and vulnerable but she’d started to here, and clearly she’d needed the reminder of how foolish that was. She promised herself she would not err again.
The priestess deflated like a burst balloon. The tension in the air had hardly dissipated, and she could feel it; she had only moved the bad blood around, and it would circulate again. She only had to hold them together while they had to be around one another. Then, later, she could work to heal the wounds she'd made. She sank into her abandoned chair with a long, deep exhalation, her body and chair positioned between the women and the door.
"Alright," she said. "Now. Thus far we've worked on illusions, the creation of artifacts, binding magic, and general manipulation of the Force. Magic. Whatever you want to call it. The binding magic is of particular interest to me, for obvious reasons."
Hannah nodded along with Dee's list, a slight impression of admiration appearing on her face. It eased the pain in Dee's chest somewhat. "Not bad. That's a lot to cover in such a short span of time. You said recreating Professor Finch's mirror is a possibility. Did you make anything already?"
"A ring," she said. "The binding spell is written into it. It was successful, but how successful, we don't know yet. It's being tested very soon and we'll know for sure."
The elf opened her mouth, then thought better of it in light of not-too-long before agreements. She waited a beat, scrolling through more questions in her head. "And what else? You guys made a ring, and Issan took off with it? I'm guessing you can't be too detailed with your plans, but if I had something to go off of, I'd feel a little better."
Dee thought for a moment, choosing her next words carefully. It did not sound especially good no matter how she framed it. "Issan took it to give to an ally," she said. "Someone working with her, close to the First Order, but not with them. From what I understand, there's no love lost between them and the Order, or the man who attacked me."
Madalena tensed. Here we go, she thought.
Once again, Hannah's mouth opened more on a whim than with actual thought, but she closed it again. She pressed fingers to her forehead, eyes screwed shut, as she hefted a deep sigh. "I'm just. Not even going to ask. Just. Letting it go. Here and now." She let her hand drop to her side. "Is there anything definitive that you can tell me? Aside from what you already have?"
Dee's cheeks darkened. She looked down at her hands, plainly caught out and uncertain how to escape. "Not particularly," she said. "It's not my story to tell, Hannah. If you could speak with Issan I'm sure she could explain much better and more than I can. I'm still learning. I do wish you'd join us, but I'll settle with you just… not immediately writing me off."
Hannah sighed, and walked out to grab the wine bottle by its neck. "I'm trying really hard not to, Dee, I swear to Necrius and his unholy ballsack. I can't really be faulted for being worried." She took a swig directly from the bottle, uncaring of anyone's opinion. "I don't know that I can join something I don't know enough about. It's one thing to take a job, earn some gold and be done with it; it's another to swear allegiance to a person. Besides, the whole Resistance thing sounds way less sketchy than what you guys are up to."
The priestess had to stop to consider this a moment. She had had little time enough for the holonet; isolated by both distance and engrossing work, she had barely found time to watch holovids of galactic news. But she knew enough to understand what Hannah meant, and to find it hard to formulate a thorough counter.
"I know," Dee said. She spread her hands, tired and out of ideas. "And I won't ask you to join until and unless you're comfortable. The Resistance has a clear set of goals, and I understand the appeal of that. But staying out of the war has its benefits, too. We're working against the Order, too, but we're not painting nearly as big a target on ourselves to do it."
"Says the woman who was targeted by...what's his name again? Crazy Glue?" Hannah took another drink from the wine bottle. She backed slowly into her seat. "But you're not wrong. I don't know. I don't feel as invested as you guys obviously are." She leaned forward, both hands wrapped around the bottle's neck.
"This isn't a bad approach overall," she continued. "I mean, you've got your person on the inside. Who knows what information the Resistance has on the Order. If I'm not joining you guys, I could at least help out in whatever way I can. Keep you away from Crusty Rum."
Dee tried to laugh, but the sound died in her throat. "Kylo Ren," she said. The words were rough in her mouth, more difficult to say than she would have expected. "And I'd appreciate that, Hannah, more than you know. Please be careful, though, okay? I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you because of... all this. Me."
Hannah freed one hand from the bottle and waved away Dee's concern. "You know I can take care of myself. If anything happens to me, it'll be because of me and a stupid decision I made. Of which I have made many, and will likely make many more."
Dee moved closer to her friend, and brought her hand to rest atop Hannah's own. It was an unwanted gesture, almost certainly, but one Dee felt she had to make. Her expression had softened considerably; for the second time that day, she felt near tears. "I know," she said. "Thank you." She looked over her shoulder to Maddie, all too conscious of the anger and unhappiness that swirled around her. "Both of you."
Anger, resentment, hurt - all of it swirled in Madalena’s mind like a snowstorm, but none of it showed on her face. She was all too used to concealing her true feelings - all except disdain, usually - and this time was no different. She smiled flatly. “You’re welcome.”