InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "It's Leon."

Carrick McClennithan is the bringer of storms (theseainsideme) wrote in we_float,
@ 2010-05-17 16:36:00

Current music:	'Life During Wartime' - Talking Heads
Entry tags:	character: alistair icenhour, character: tereska wasserbach

We dress like students, we dress like housewives or in a suit and a tie
Who: Alistair Icenhour and Tereska Wasserbach
When: late in the day Monday, May 17, 2096
Where: Senate Offices of Katherine Athena
What: Alistair and Tereska discuss recent events
Status: Closed, Incomplete

Alistair had an open door policy meaning that when his door was open, anyone could come in. If it was closed, you'd better either have an appointment or a phenomenal emergency. It was open now as he sat at his desk and read the first pass of an appropriations bill; it didn't require much in the way of focus to parse through.

He looked at his bottle of water and sighed - it was nearly empty and he was lazily putting off getting up and walking the fifteen steps to the filter tank. Mondays seem to always be this way even if weekends had lost their meaning. There was just something tiring and draining about a Monday. If he didn't have three interns to drive into the ground, he'd have gone home an hour ago.

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	tasteofmetal 2010-05-18 04:05 am UTC (link)
	Tereska knocked perfunctorily on the door - a learned behaviour rather than a notification of presence - as she stepped in. "So what's the fallout so far?" Her voice was always slightly flat, but she showed a subtle genuine curiousity as she glanced at him. "Are they going to join or are they running off?" (Reply to this) (Thread)

theseainsideme
2010-05-18 04:17 am UTC (link)

Alistair looked up, then rose up to greet Tereska. Or rather, to be precise, to shoe her inside his office. "Do come in Ms. Wasserbach," he said causally, though the steel in his wistful eyes didn't so much as request but demand. He took the opportunity to fill up his water bottle again. "We can talk further in my office."

She wasn't the most delicate of people but whether it was a skill inborn to her or one she'd picked up in the last two years, the woman could take a hint.

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tasteofmetal
2010-05-18 04:28 am UTC (link)

"They're not listening," she pointed out as the door closed. But she rarely bothered to justify her actions, and now wasn't a time to start. What she'd said had been simple fact.

She took a seat with casual ease. She'd been in and out of his office more than, she assumed, either of them had expected, once Katherine had offered her a full-time position on the staff. In hindsight, it made sense that they'd work together more than she'd thought they would, but coming in two years ago, she'd mistakenly assumed that her job was separate from his, as it had been when she worked for SAD.

The faintest trace of a smile twisted one corner of her mouth as she added "Nor are you. I was talking about that Rightists coalition that's making noise in the House, for all you know." But the expression was gone almost as soon as it had happened, and her gaze was level on him again.

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theseainsideme
2010-05-18 04:46 am UTC (link)

"If you had an opinion on that, I doubt you'd share it with me," he said straightforwardly as he filled the bottle and screwed the top back on. "And is someone always listening, Ms. Wasserbach. I realize that your position is concerned purely with keeping the Senator alive, but mine is to keep her employed. I'll ask you to respect that. Again."

He took his seat with a heavy sort of motion and looked calmly at Ms. Wasserbach. "I think it was a complete cock-up but I'm fairly sure they'll all say yes. Sturbridge will convince the younger ones and O'Hare will have scared the rest into consolidation. Besides - 2 weeks into legitimacy will have them running for some measure of stability. I think that was part of the reason the Senator went young rather than established."

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	tasteofmetal 2010-05-18 04:51 am UTC (link)
	"Or they'll disappear," she pointed out, irked by his belief that the wild cards would simply do as anyone had asked. "They do have other options than Katherine's." If someone had made the same offer to her, it wasn't a question. Whatever the opportunities it gave, there was a fundamental inequity in the offer - the difference between a job offer and an order. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	theseainsideme 2010-05-18 05:01 am UTC (link)
	"Ones that maintain something of their status quo, or in the case of a handful, give them a place to live and income? And what are those?" he asked, an eyebrow raised. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tasteofmetal 2010-05-18 05:15 am UTC (link)
	"Leaving the country would be a start," she pointed out calmly. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

theseainsideme
2010-05-18 05:29 am UTC (link)

"I'm not sure that's going to be possible soon," he murmured, clear enough to be understood. It was a topic of some debate in the Icenhour-Catchlove group and it was one that he was unfortunately revisiting more frequently than he liked. Safe though Scotland was by comparison, he couldn't imagine being so far from his daughter and his best friend. He opened his bottle and took a sip from it, a disappointed look on his face as he screwed the top back on.

"But that's neither here nor there. While I agree that is certainly an option, financial or emotional viability aside, I still maintain they'll all fall in. It's... well, I've learned to trust the Senator's manipulation tactics. It's certainly not what I would have done: looked like absolute chaos and that stupid belated entrance was over-dramatic by half. But. Somehow she gets it to work." Alistair shrugged grudgingly.

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	tasteofmetal 2010-05-18 05:31 am UTC (link)
	"They had too much time to ask questions," she agreed. "Before and after we showed up. We should have been waiting, and she should have held a meeting." She paused, though, one finger tapping rhythmically against the arm of the chair in a tic that had to be familiar by now. "Though it never hurts to make your opponent underestimate you," she added finally. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	theseainsideme 2010-05-18 05:37 am UTC (link)
	"And those ridiculous incentive envelopes," Alistair sighed, tacitly agreeing with Tereska. "Paranoia-inducing. They practically invited people to come with the worst in mind." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tasteofmetal 2010-05-18 05:43 am UTC (link)
	"How hard are you planning on sitting on them?" She didn't entirely agree about the envelopes - they couldn't precisely force anyone to come - but it had been a little more over the top than she liked. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

theseainsideme
2010-05-18 01:35 pm UTC (link)

That was an abrupt question, Alistair thought. "An appropriate amount," he answered. It was perfectly true and perfectly vague; he made no effort to either clarify or quantify further. "But I think you'd better work that into your plans with the Senator - this is her project; I merely set it up."

He knew it wasn't going to stay that way. Things like this had a way of getting pushed onto Alistair and, truth be told, if Katherine got overly involved he'd have to pull it off of her to get her re-focused. She still had to govern, whether she had lost her taste for it or not.

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tasteofmetal
2010-05-19 12:07 am UTC (link)

Tereska simply gave him a very old-fashioned look. She knew, even if he didn't, that whoever the responsibility was supposed to belong to, it was going to wind up Alistair's.

After a moment, she added "It's not fouling my plans. She's not likely to visit them, therefore there's no security risk there, and so far they haven't come to see her in a group. If they do," she said abruptly, "I expect she'll be busy." It wasn't quite a question, but that kind of thing never had to be, not when Katherine had a manager like Alistair. She didn't expect that either of them wanted the recruits to have access to the Senator.

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theseainsideme
2010-05-20 03:51 am UTC (link)

He caught the drift and seemed to shrug without moving a muscle. "I can only ensure so much." People weren't so much controlled in his world but nudged. You adjusted the course of things, the people, the narrative until they aligned. Nudging Katherine was a problem - not because the action was difficult, but because the ripples of effect were so much more pronounced. It was easier to respond to her actions than to try and influence them.

Most of the time, at least. Alistair was good at picking his moments.

"I'll know more once they aggregate."

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tasteofmetal
2010-05-20 06:41 pm UTC (link)

"I'd think that between us we can assure quite a lot," she pointed out. "Is there a designated point of contact in this office with them?" She didn't expect there to be - that sort of thing threw deniability out the window - but at the same time, Katherine had given them all contact information for her, and if she didn't respond to that, they were likely, in Tereska's opinion, to simply start showing up uninvited.

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theseainsideme
2010-05-21 12:19 am UTC (link)

He gave her a look that screamed 'you should know better than that,' but then Alistair added, "It's taken care of." He didn't feel the need to elaborate on that point, but he was sure that with the voicemail password in his possession, he could stave off any embarrassing situations that she might find herself involved in due to her band of merry Wild Cards.

"Anyone in particular give you concern?" he inquired.

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