taxonomites | o1o ♠ if you wanna play dirty darling [ visual ] [ filtered against the doctor ]

Entry tags:

o1o ♠ if you wanna play dirty darling [ visual ] [ filtered against the doctor ]

"Good morning, Taxon." Crisp British diction and smooth French enunciation and it must be the Countess of Gatas, sober in dark, deep blue and holding a china teacup in both hands as she sits down at her husband's desk, dwarfed by the masculine surroundings designed for a man much, much larger than she is but soothed by the authority of it.

Some few days have passed since the bomb threat, and as the city returns to an equilibrium it seems to her eye that there's no time to waste. She sips her tea as she briefly scans the notes she's had transcribed, and then begins. "My name is Lady Petrana, and I am the Countess of Gatas. The Doctor is presently incarcerated in the Alcione dungeons of my home. We have been poorly organized here in the city, and to my eye we're now paying for it. First of all I propose that those of you most closely involved with the capture of the Doctor meet with me here at Gatas; I am his jailer and I'd appreciate being kept aware of how we will continue to handle this matter. Some of you may have seen the gates of Gatas open in the past- they are now closed. They will remain so. Visitors who are not expected will not be permitted within the grounds without a very good reason until such time as I am no longer acting as prison mistress."

A beat passes; Petra takes another sip of tea.

"A committee of some sort seems to be our best - if not our only - option, but to begin with it may be easiest to meet with those involved in smaller groups. I greatly, greatly admire how well we've all pulled together for this, but with so many involved we'll be better served having some sense of organization before we attempt to wargame the situation."

In closing, Petra looks directly at the tablet and smiles radiantly. "I am so proud of you all. The feats of bravery, kindness and keen intellect on that day are well worthy of the knights that I have given my loyalty and love; I can pay no higher compliment. Thank you."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Accepting the bottle with a wry smile, Petra examines it and sets it down on the table for the time being, indicating he should sit with a little tip of her hand.

"On the contrary," she says, dryly, "I daresay it's the most appropriate gift you might've brought under the circumstances."

He manages a small, nearly private smile at that. "Conceded," he tells her, and sounds faintly amused. Finally, he sits down, and though he wonders if it would be more polite to engage in some manner of smalltalk first, or compliment her home, he decides against it.

"I imagine you're concerned about someone taking the Doctor an executing him as a show of power." --Well, might as well get down to business.

If Bruce intends to be frank with her, then Petra will attempt to do the same.

"Yes," she says, then, plainly. "Or being fed to the wolves, if you'll pardon the expression. A descent into mob rule neatly undoes everything I've complimented you on today, and I won't be party to that."

"I think that we're fortunate to have the tempers we do in this city." No pitchforks and torches yet, in any event. "And he's fortunate that none of the imported citizens were killed. If it had resulted in a bloodbath, I doubt he'd have made it to the castle at all. While plenty of people are tense, the general feeling seems to be that people want no more bloodshed or chaos. If we can move with relative speed and smoothness on this, I believe that feeling will remain."

He pauses for a moment - Bruce isn't much of a speaker, and it's apparent. There's no embarrassment or stuttered words, but there is a definite sense that he's normally much quieter. "Still, it only takes one person. As I said, people are tense."

If someone preached hard enough, could a mob be formed? He's not sure. But he doesn't think everyone here would condemn a vigilante - or a self-styled wannabe dictator - who took matters into their own hands. "The group of people who apprehended the Doctor took steps, collectively, to make sure that he wasn't mortally wounded or tortured. Myself, Doctor Leila Yilmaz, Solomon Koenig, a young woman named Judith, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Sherlock Holmes, and Lady Morgana."

Edited 2010-03-08 13:56 (UTC)

Having brought her notes with her, she picks those up now to mark down the names- it's not without a hint of pride that she finishes the list, as he does, with Morgana. She permits the feeling a moment to bloom and then crushes it back with everything else that's not useful to her right now, focusing instead on the subject of tension.

"Our guardsmen here presently are Stefan Salvatore and Uther Doul," she contributes, "and with one minor reservation I feel comfortable relying on them for now. Detective Holmes has offered his services, as has Colonel Benjamin; I intend to take charge of the latter myself, circumstances and necessity permitting."

"I don't know Doul," he says. "Benjamin was at my estate shortly after the crisis, assisting. He seems decent enough." Beyond that, Bruce is reserving judgment - it's not fair of him to be skeptical of Jack based on his social status and his profession, but he is, and he isn't sorry for it. Military aristocrats don't often turn out trustworthy or competent, and while there are numerous, lovely exceptions to the rule, Bruce is paranoid and mistrustful by nature. Hopefully Jack will perform.

"What's the reservation?" A beat. "If you don't mind."

"Let me address Benjamin first," she says, thoughtfully. "I know his type, Master Wayne-" and she knows Bruce's, too, but if the thought is there in her expression she isn't commenting, "-sometimes they flourish when given the opportunity, and sometimes they don't. I'd like to temporarily charge him with military matters conducted through my castle and give him that opportunity. If he proves suitable, so much the better."

If he doesn't, the leash turns into rope on which he hangs himself and Petra is confident that this is something in which she can rely on Doul to enforce her will if need be.

"Then we'll hope for the better," he agrees, and offers no further comment - he really doesn't know Jack, and despite Bruce's kneejerk impulse to control things, it's her household and her business. It was, he imagines, a rather speedy decision to chuck the Doctor in here, but now that it's done they have to live with it. Personally he appreciates Petrana's sharp-eyed vigilance on the matter, but who knows how the rest will react.

A decisive nod and that subject is closed for now; she'll handle it privately later.

"As far as my reservations go-" she pauses, here, and for the first time since her carefully considered address she genuinely hesitates. She doesn't stop, but she hesitates.

"I consider Uther Doul to be a personal friend," she continues levelly, "and in most things I will trust his judgement as an intelligent man and a skilled warrior. I'm aware of my own limitations, and if I need a right arm then at the moment he is what I have. That said, I don't trust the Brucolac. I find his motives suspect and his methods ungentlemanly-" in a slightly stiff tone, referencing the humiliation that she spoke of to no one essentially because she understands the wisdom of waiting to play a card if you have one, "-and I have to consider that his loyalty to the vampire very likely comes before his loyalty to me. They are brothers in arms of some kind, and neither my charms nor my abilities as some kind of leader are that considerable."

Considerable enough to expect her new bond to supercede the older one, whatever its nature, she means. It's heartening that Doul stayed with her in Gatas, but she saw him that night on All Hallows Eve and the memory has remained with her. Uther Doul is the nearest thing she has to a right arm in Taxon, as she says, and she's wary of jeopardizing that by moving against the Brucolac - whatever she thinks of him personally or politically. Not if Doul is all she has, and there's no one else here she trusts as much.

Edited 2010-03-08 14:35 (UTC)

Petrana's explanation puts him into thoughtful silence, and he doesn't respond right away. Bruce knows who the Brucolac is, though mostly only by way of observation. Their only exchange has been brief, and Bruce can't hold his abrasive demeanor against him - he could merely be the sort to not suffer fools, and plainly, Bruce had been playing at being rather thick. It's an act he's cast aside by now, thankfully. On the one hand, the man told the Doctor to go to hell and offered a haven and probably saved a huge number of citizens. On the other, he's highly aggressive and very powerful, and while those aren't damning traits, they're ones to look out for.

... And there's just something about the way she says 'ungentlemanly'.

After his silence, Bruce picks his words frankly. "I think that making an enemy of him preemptively would be a bad idea. He's unpleasant, but it may just be an abrasive nature. All the same, I think you're right to be concerned about it."

"I have some reason to consider it more than mere abrasiveness," she says, in the same level tone, "but I'm not any more interested in courting disaster than you are. My concern is that I expect he'll be involved, I won't have him in my home, and he has a cavalier disregard for my authority and my person. The only person I'm certain can handle him is a friend of his. I feel obliged to at least mention this, if it'll later be problematic."

It seems best to leave it at that.

"I don't mean to make you responsible for my affairs, but I think it's best someone else is aware. I trust your discretion."

Edited 2010-03-08 14:53 (UTC)

He doesn't doubt her, but it's a difficult situation - the man is well-liked, and Bruce isn't enough of a hypocrite (yet) to condemn people for their vile attitude problems and menacing natures. It's a good thing she understands the politics - but he hates to leave the subject as it is.

After a moment of quiet watchfulness, Bruce moves enough to dig something out of his coat pocket. A utility belt would be more useful, but it clashes with the outfit; he's found other ways to lug around all his gadgets - one of which he's only developed while in Taxon. He holds a small circular, whitish-colored ball up, showing her a small mechanism on the side.

"If he tries anything, even if your man isn't complacent in it, contact me immediately. If he tries anything with you, slide this forward, drop it, run, and contact me. Don't rely on it, because it hasn't been tested--" seriously how is he going to get volunteers or something like that? "--but in theory, it'll emit the sort of light that will damage them. It'll go for a few extremely intense pulses and then short out."

The Brucolac's popularity is part of what has kept her mouth shut for all these weeks; she's cultivated fondness among some quarters, but presently she doesn't command the same respect and she's a lot of things but she's not an idiot. She makes a mental note to speak directly to Doul about the nature of their arrangement sometime in the very near future, at least, as she nods and examines the device Bruce has presented her with.

"I will, thank you," she says, briefly, because it's more than she expected to put her mind at ease and the situation is a complicated and thorny one without this additional tangle. She hopes that the Brucolac will be sensible in circumstances so delicate, but all the same she's not willing to bank on it.

"I'm going to speak with the Doctor myself," she says, then, "so he understands my place in this." That's the hope, anyway. "Detective Holmes expressed a wish to interrogate him, which I'm willing to permit with observation."

He leaves the UV bomb on the table - he's only made a few, and he thinks that he'll only need to fiddle with one or two more before the image is solid enough in his head to trust replicating them with a hatch. Hopefully they (and nothing else he's come up with) won't ever need to be used.

"I'm sure Dr. Yilmaz put in recording devices," he muses, because... Leila. After a pause, he continues: "My observations of the man have been that he's very technically smart - to have crafted what he did - but he seems somewhat unfortunately insane." It's almost sad; the way he talks, the way he holds himself. It just doesn't match up with what he's done, and the erratic way he doesn't seem to hear what people are saying to him.

"It almost seems as if he'd have to be," Petra sighs, although she knows that's not necessarily the case. It is, instead, frankly the best case scenario. "I'll make the attempt, but if he won't listen reasonably, I don't intend to waste my time arguing with him about his own safety."

It's almost a pity the Doctor is less directly combative. He could do with getting his ass kicked.

Oh, well.

"I wish you luck," Bruce says, wry half-smile on his face. "I wasn't kidding about him having a mouth on him." Guy just does not know when to stop talking.

"I've spent the majority of my life with sailors and knights," she says, wryly, touching her temple. "You'd be astonished at my capacity for patience. Frankly, I'm astonished by it."

"I hope that I haven't tried yours any," he says, sounding amused. "You're a formidable woman, Lady Petrana."

"I know your kind, too, Master Wayne," she says, blandly, and this formidable woman isn't just saying so. "And you're not wholly unwelcome."

If she truly does, well, then - there's more everyone else should be worried about. Bruce stands, taking his jacket with him, and bows his head again, polite.

"Thank you for your time, Countess. I hope that we'll meet in the future over less headache inducing business."

"I hope so, too. Thank you for being such a level-head in all of this."

"Well all do our best."

His level head is hard won; he walked away from the Doctor because he knew he had to. Just thinking about it gives him flashes of unease deep inside, guilt and pain connected to something far disconnected from this place and all its woes.

"I hope your day is a peaceful one."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

o1o ♠ if you wanna play dirty darling [ visual ] [ filtered against the doctor ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]

[ location : castle gatas ]