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

Comments

[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.

1/2

[tender]

[ ]

[tender]

All I wanted to say is that you should be careful that you don't cause the kind of reactions you're worried about. That's all.

[bouchonne]

[ She's a kind and well-intentioned woman, self-evidently so, which is why he doesn't say what is at the tip of his tongue, which is a variation on go teach grandma to suck eggs. Instead, his voice quite gentle and pleasant, he says: ]

Thank you. It's a difficult and fraught situation, without question. And your advice does not fall on deaf ears.

[tender]

[ doubt.jpg ]

Thank you for your time, Ambassador.