[PRP] Noblesse Oblige (Shiloh & Temperance)

[The Semblance of Unity]

While he'd given her the 'sad eyes', Rabbit had agreed that Temperance be allowed to roam. It was a blessing because, quite frankly, she'd been going stir crazy. Rabbit wasn't there all the time, neither were the squeeps, and Oroh was strange at best. She'd found she had toruble sleeping at night as her days were empty of purpose. Well, not entirely empty. Rabbit brought by small othercreatures that needed healing; she was learning, but... Temperance was worried. In the state she existed in, there was so much she couldn't do, couldn't influence.

She was tired of worry and yet she couldn't stop herself. The pending 'restructure' of the court - which she wasn't sure she was allowed to even comment on yet, - the things back home, how the reset had changed things. Temperance worried. A lot could happen in nearly three months and it pushed bile into her mouth. So she wandered a bit in the court's domain, finally settling on a settee. What could she even do?

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Every visit to Court was more and more doleful. The drab grey of the marbled interior, the way everything was absent of color and how it made it look like a dream in the sense of unreal rather than wondrous. He once saw a lot of potential in these halls. He still did, but he was more serious about the fact. He wasn't here to play hero or martyr. He wanted to help because the magic chose him, not because he chose the magic.

Shiloh sighed.

The emptiness gave him a lot of space with a lot of time to think. He appreciated that. Of course, it wasn't uncommon to see other Nobles from time to time, but that didn't mean he wasn't expecting to see Temperance out and about. His time as a tithe was under lock and key. Scheduled. He supposed he was glad to see other tithes had more freedom.

If not a little jealous.

But it worked out. He had a lot on his mind, and despite the awkwardness Temperance was one of the many loose ends in his web of never ending questions. Still, how did you amiably approach someone you otherwise hated?

"It gets boring, doesn't it? Being trapped here." He said instead, though his voice was still carefully void of any real inflection. Deadpan. He walked towards the settee slowly, hands clasped behind his back like a child who was told not to touch anything in the supermarket aisle. Maybe he didn't want to touch anything. He looked rather guarded.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Temperance was absorbed in her thoughts, but there was no way she could miss Shiloh's approach. She knew he... didn't like her. Maybe that was a little mild for how he felt about her trying to save Melany, but... She tacked on a small smile. "Yeah, a little boring, a little frustrating..." Temperance chewed her lip.

"But," she took a deep breath. "I guess that's hardly a reason to complain. I just wanted to think." Temperance scooted over on the settee. "Want to sit?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Better for it to be boring." Shiloh sighed at that, shuffled awkwardly, and then finally took a stiff seat next to Temperance. He had been bored with his confinement too, but it had been a different kind of boredom. It was the exhaustion in the monotony of a routine that threatened to kill you and the stagnant apathy that crawled along with it.

"You didn't say much at the meeting," She had said a little; granted, Lady and Jeremiah had done most of the talking towards the end. His hand dipped down to mess with the hem on his sleeve, a nervous tic more than anything. "Why are you even here, anyway?" The tone was borderline accusatory, but genuinely curious too. "Never really understood why people wanted to be nobility s'damn bad."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"I... it didn't feel like my place, yet. I don't like parts of this, it seems to easy to make the court too similar to what it was before, in the name of 'good'." She sighed. Maybe she should have spoken up, but she was well aware of how the people within the court didn't like her anyway.

Temperance looked at Shiloh out of the corner of her eye. "Have you ever watched someone die?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh was about to give her a noncomittal 'fair enough', but the words caught in his throat. Had he ever watched someone die? "I guess I have, yeah." And he thought about it for a moment before speaking up again, "When Aodelle died. But..." It was callous to say that didn't affect him--didn't really feel like it happened--had no impact. Was it because Aodelle wanted to die willingly? He clicked his tongue against his teeth.

"But before that too, at--" he paused, a soft moment of realization dawning on him, "At... you were there at Blackfrairs, I remember now." Watching Michael shred that women's neck wide open had a little more weight carried with it. He hadn't numbed yet, hadn't grown to expect death. He had just been looking for a ******** job.

Still, any camaraderie between them was spared. Shiloh understood now, but he still wasn't entirely convinced.

"I guess wanting to help people is a noble goal." He shrugged, "But being a Noble means a lot more than that.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She looked over at Shiloh, her mouth a hard line, before she glanced at her hands, twisting in her lap. She felt it, always, sticky and cloying on her hands, in her nostrils. "I was there," she said.

"If I'd had enough, been enough, been better, they wouldn't have died. There's been so much senseless death, Shiloh. I just wanted..." Temperance sighed. "And I needed to be here... because in 22 years, the same sort of ritual sacrifice would be needed again and I needed to stop it. No one listened to Zac when he said we should all bleed for it at the ball." The sigil, the one they'd rewritten, had just needed that sort of blood.

"No one ever had to d-die." And it was her fault for not being quick enough, vocal enough, skilled enough. "It's amazing how ugly a knife cut looks even when the knife is blindingly sharp."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh considered this carefully, thoughtfully, tried to take a step back and place himself in someone else's shoes. Jamie hated it when he fought, hated his hate, wanted him to heal. It wasn't that easy, but then again nothing really was.

"I wonder if that would've worked." He mused aloud instead. Maybe if you'd kept your mask, you could've done something. The thought never made it past his lips, but it was still there. Sure, they all broke out, but... "Too late to know now I guess."

He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his mind recalling is conversation with Lady. "It doesn't have to be that way going forward, though. It's possible to change this place." He blinked slowly, "Actually, it might be our only chance to change this place, since Melany's gone." It was the Sorrowful One's court, but only in name.

He could understand her perspective though, maybe. It was an opportunity to get stronger, get better, work harder, get reward for your effort. To him it had been a prison, but not many people knew the horrors of that. He dipped his head towards his lap.

"I don't want anyone else to die either." He admitted quietly.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Yes," she said, a little bitterness seeping into her voice. "Everyone attending was too concerned with who they had to kill to think of an alternate solution." Temperance had not voted for Algernon, still didn't think he'd chosen well, still believed he had assisted suicide just as Liam had. She remembered the futility of trying to give her mask to save someone else, the way all the tithes had been so content to stay in that room and await their fate. It was so incredibly frustrating to know that no one wanted to challenge things and that she wasn't strong enough to do so herself.

She sighed and continued twisting her hands around each other. "I just... don't want it to turn into a dictatorship, or an oligarchy. Aren't you concerned?" She didn't trust either Mercer, really, and Alexis seemed unstable, and... Temperance sighed again. "I won't be a part of something where I feel as though I don't have a say."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"No, I get that."

He was fussing with his cuticles. "Melany ruled the Court with an iron thumb. I don't want that to happen again." He sighed, the sound heavy, "I don't want anyone to be a self proclaimed mouthpiece. I don't want anyone to assert themselves and try to play the ******** leader. That's why I worry... that's why I want something put in place so no one can power trip."

Doubt was written all over his face. "I mean, I guess there's the geas, but it still didn't do much before. It didn't seem like it anyway."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"What can we even put in place? She mentioned the Charter, but how do words and paper rule such nobles as were before?" Temperance broke her hands apart to rub at her temples. It was hard to start from scratch. "It sounds like something from the Abhorsen books." She huffed out a small laugh. The Charter was the magic system in those books, binding fee and wild magic into something that was usable for everyone. But somehow she doubted her nerd knowledge would be of use here.

"There's the geas, yes, but I'm not sure that anyone knows it. And if no one knows it, that's fine, but I worry about those using it improperly." She shifted a bit. "What do you think should be done?"

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I agreed with a lot of the things Lady said. Burn it down, rebuild it." He shuffled in his seat, "This place was built upon a lot of cruel things that we don't need anymore. The tithe trials, the suffering, the fetches." He motioned around the interior of the Court. "But... I don't think we can get rid of it completely either, y'know? This place has a lot of clout in the Otherworld. It keeps a lot of things in balance with the othercreatures 'n s**t."

And then he sighed again, "I'm guessing the Charter is somethin' real magical. That the things you write down it in are law or some s**t. You can't go against it." He shrugged, "I mean, I don't actually know, I've never seen the damn thing. But Lady said there was a lot of stuff you can do with it. It doesn't just dictate the Court. It dictates everything in the Otherworld. We could give this entire place structure—time—anything, I guess. It's really powerful from what she said." His eyes glinted, "But that kinda scares me too, 'cause who's to say whoever gets it first won't abuse the ******** out of it? I'm gonna try and find it though. I don't want this abusive bullshit going on any longer..." The last part was said a little quieter, like he was ashamed of his experiences almost. Torture had that effect on people.

"Even if someone else got hold of it though, I do know the geas. I don't wanna use it like, ******** ever, but if someone's stepping out of line I will." He finally stopped picking at his hands, "But there needs to be a better way than that still. It's not good if only one person knows it or if everyone know's it and they're pointing it at each other like a goddamn gun." His hands curled into fists and then flattened back out, the motion rolling over a few times, "But I guess to answer your question, I don't... I don't really know. I have a few ideas, but it's mostly a group thing. I just wanna make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands again."

He took a deep breath, tired from going off on his spiel for so long.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Do we know how the court actually originated? I don't understand why things like fetches and trials were built into it in the first place." Shiloh had some good points, but it really felt as though there was nothing Temperance could do to help or even give input on court things.

"Well, I hope you find it. I know you don't like me, but you seem... relatively level-headed." She wasn't going to bring Melany into this. She couldn't condone Melany's actions,ever, but neither could she have done anything different at the ball than what she did. "If the Charter is so powerful... it seems odd that it's a piece of paper. Like, what if it's a creature or an overarching spell? I don't know... It makes me wonder." She glanced down, watched his hands.

"I think the geas seems useful, but I can only see misuse of it... I don't trust anyone with it." Temperance hoped he wouldn't use it on her. "Everyone's idea of 'out of line' will differ. I think... I don't want this court to have a leadership, like before, but everyone equal."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh thought about this for a while, "It's... a piece of paper, yeah, but... it's more than that too, I guess? They anchored the spell to a person. I don't know the specifics, but Mercer seems to believe it's Melany." He rubbed his temple, "The Court was made to, like, give people some control over magic? Set boundaries? I think it's kinda what keeps magic limited to the Otherworld. I still need to find out more on it."

He sighed.

"That's why I don't wanna tell anyone the geas." He admitted, "Liam Noor taught it to me, but I almost wish he hadn't. I mean, I accepted it at the time because I thought that maybe I might have to use it, but I really don't want to." He shuddered, "Like, he used it on me as an example—and he didn't make me do anything bad—but the feeling? It's kinda bad. It gets worse as you reject it. It wasn't so bad 'cause I gave into it, but..." He shook his head, "I don't like messing with free will. I already did that with Sonny. I don't wanna force people to do s**t they don't wanna."

"And anyway," He took a deep breath, "I just want the Court to be... okay. I want it to be something good, so it doesn't matter if I hate you or ********' not, 'cause if you're gonna be a Noble then we gotta work together. Melany and Ezra were at each others throats all the time. I don't wanna see Nobles war." He sniffed, "But... I guess I'm not as mad about it anymore. It kinda gave Melany a second chance... she's... different now, y'know? Whatever everyone did with the sigil, it changed her. I'm tryin' to figure out what the ******** it was so the Spinel Lady never has to step foot in these ******** halls ever again."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Mixing magic and bodies.. it... it doesn't always work very well. There's a reason no magic healing is allowed within major hospitals nor advocated for, like, ever." She still had, of course... within reason. There was no justification to keep anyone in pain longer than they had to be. "It sounds like some high school kids decided magic should have a government and could only remember the basic three branches and mixed that with medieval fiction novels." Had anyone known what they were doing?

She felt her eyebrows zoom upwards. "You used the geas on Sonny? I.. didn't think that was a thing." Of course Liam knew the geas, probably Renard, too, and Temperance doubted either of them would hesitate in using it to further their own gains.

"Melany changed? Like, how - for good?" She twisted a lock of her hair with her fingers. "Sorry, I've... I've been here since almost right after we got back from the new sigil. No one tells me anything..."

melancholies