contact part deux

[bouchonne]

if this were modern times byerly would probably make you listen to total eclipse of the heart before you were able to leave a message

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[bouchonne]

[ Interesting. This is an unusual voice. ]

By all means. What might I do for you?

[tender]

I don't mean to—

[ a pause, a sharply drawn breath. ]

I had a question, about what you'd said about the dreams over the crystal. I'm sorry to bring it up again.

[bouchonne]

I should be most pleased to speak on it. Ask away.

[tender]

Was something done? After all had been said, was there any action taken?

[bouchonne]

No. Nor was it the intent to take action. My only desire was to - hm - cause a bit of trouble. See if anyone panicked. Will you keep that a secret?

[tender]

[ There is a pause of several weeks while Derrica considers that answers. ]

And if someone had panicked?

[bouchonne]

Ah.

[ He can venture a guess here. ]

Are you thinking about a particular fellow, perhaps, who seems to have disappeared into the underbrush?

[tender]

Were you thinking of him, when you made that address?

[bouchonne]

It would have been hard for me not to have thought of him, given the nature of our encounter. But the fellow has done worse to me than torment me in a dream, and I took no action then. This wouldn't have been any different.

[tender]

Did you want us to leave? The ones who dreamed themselves onto the wrong side?

[bouchonne]

Is that where you dreamed yourself? That wasn't my recollection.

[tender]

It was.

[ the mitigating factors can't weigh too heavily in her favor, can they? ]

[bouchonne]

And the information you gave to me...Was it intended to be a trap? A betrayal?

[tender]

[ tightly— ]

Byerly.

[ ugh, wait. ]

Ambassador, please.

[bouchonne]

"Byerly" is fine. If anything, I prefer it.

[tender]

Will you answer the question if I call you Byerly?

[bouchonne]

It would be churlish to demand that of you.

[ Then: ]

I do not want anyone with wavering loyalties at my back. Things are going to get worse from here on out, and I want to know I can depend on those around me even when the suffering is greater. Now, those who dreamed themselves on the other side - do they have wavering loyalties based on that alone? I doubt it very much. But those who fled afterwards? There, the case is stronger. If they chose to leave now because they feared some nebulous unpleasantness, I do not think we can trust them when Corypheus' blood mages are at our doors.

[tender]

[ there is some quiet, muted struggle to couch this sentiment, but lands on— ]

I think you're wrong.

[bouchonne]

Yes?

[ A clear invitation to elaborate. ]

[tender]

Would you stay with an organization that told you that you weren't trusted because of a dream? If that was the first thing you heard when you woke up?

[ it's different for mages, she might say. but byerly is not a person to raise such a point with. ]

[bouchonne]

[ ??? ]

Of course. I'd think less of an organization that didn't distrust me after that.

[ #spylife ]

[tender]

[ ¿?¿? ]

Shouldn't all the time you've worked alongside a person matter more than what happens in a dream?

[bouchonne]

Well, yes, of course. But again, it wasn't the dream that mattered. It was the behavior after the dream.

[tender]

Which you believe you had no effect on.

[bouchonne]

I did not say that, mademoiselle. No more than I would say that I had no part in the incident where Leander stabbed me in the side. Why, I had lost my temper, and was berating him, you see. And yet, for all that I did in part instigate, my general feeling is that the man's uncommonly strong reaction, the leap to violence which left me fearful for my own life, did tell me something about his character.