[?] Red Sister (America)

[shibrogane]

lizbot

The Charter
To: "America Jones"
From: e.fitz.0191@riderwaite.edu

Hello,
I found a lot of what you said at the conference interesting, but haven't had the time to reach out until now. Can we meet up sometime to talk about what else you'd like to change about the Court?
Regards,
e. fitzpatrick

 

[lizbot]

shibrogane

Re: The Charter
To: "e.fitz"
From: a.jones.1111@riderwaite.edu

I wasn't myself for that, but my thoughts are the same, just with less of a nervous breakdown to go along with them. I'll be free tomorrow after 1pm if you want to meet at Keppler Park.

- America Jones

She was there early, possibly very early considering the piled combination of school work, bridal magazines, and magical diagrams occupying the picnic table. Post-it notes littered the whole of it, most especially the magazines. As the hour approached, America began packing it all back up into her bag.  

[shibrogane]

Ezra joined her. He had two Starbucks cups, and offered one to her. "I didn't do anything to it," he said. "Working on frames for the new Charter?"

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

"Thanks," she answered with a small laugh, assuming the assurance was a joke and a little surprised but grateful all the same for the refuel. Going to sleep late, getting up early, afternoons always held the inviting draw of just laying down and napping in the sun for a spell.

Taking a sip, she nodded, "Yeah. Just to test the binding techniques we wanna try, though." There was a DIY printout for flower crowns mixed in there, but that could also be just another consideration for a frame.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Ezra looked impressed. He sat across from America and looked at one of the sheets before helping her continue to gather them up. "I'm working on gathering permission for the revocation of the Charter," he said. "I was thinking we could do that while we spoke. You had a point about the nobles doing less than their duty at the conference... I wanted to ask what you would improve."

He had picked up a scrap of paper, and was writing on it without looking at it.  

[lizbot]

"Yeah, of course I'll help with that," America agreed easily though her expression hardened a bit the mention of nobles and improvement. She hadn't forgotten that this was Jer's...mentor, or whatever.

"The first thing would be getting rid of the trials and the body swaps. That's a betrayal when willing and worse when forced by kidnapping. It's wrong and it's stupid. The people who became nobles last year don't seem any wiser or better at their purpose for it. Just more damaged and angry about it all."

Her words were speeding up to a heated clip as she went on. "Good leaders aren't ********' tortured into the position. They don't hand their friends and lovers over to ********' strangers. There should be a ********' school or at least a standard. They should be learning how to care for people, all types of people, if they're expected to man the divide between worlds. And then they should be tested on that ability to take care of people. Not on just surviving, because real surviving, the ugly sort that means a body on the floor and you still standing to get your prize, means the exact ********' opposite of caring about others."

Leveling a look at Ezra, she asked, "When you survive long enough, and the caring goes away, does it come back? Does that ever cycle back?"

shixbrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"No," said Ezra. "It doesn't." Something in his face twitched as he said it. "And if you try to care, it tears you apart."

He shook his head. "I think we should limit the time a noble serves. I agree with that. Perhaps just the cycle past theirs. They can choose an heir, and teach them over that heir's lifetime. It doesn't have to be so urgent as we've been told it ought to be."

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

America nodded, expression solemn. "It's cruel. Death is...death is a thing that happens to people, and it leaves the people left behind with a hole in their lives. But what happens with nobles staying outside the cycle for so long, it's cruel. To anyone involved, it's cruel."

Death was a thing that happened. That had to happen. But suffering wasn't.

She tried not to think too much of her own far future, the potential handful of months or centuries that might make it up. "It'd be good, if we could limit it in that way. Maybe help things keep their...meaning, 'stead of warping 'round the folks that got stuck in forevers."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Ezra sighed over his coffee. "It only works if whoever creates the frame for the new Charter makes it a single-item system," he said. "If it doesn't have to be bifurcated, and placed onto someone living. While it's cruel to expect a handpicked few to live forever, it'd be even more cruel to leave just one person alive alone forever."

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

Pulling out a pen, America jotted down Ezra's words. "I think some might be...be willing to do that, anyway. There's a lot of self-sacrificing folks working on this," she frowned and struggled with that for a moment. She wasn't one of them, not really. "But not having it be necessary in the first place would be ideal, yeah."

Lifting her pen, she looked back up at him, "What would make the frame's system have to be split into two pieces, anyway? Is it something we can avoid with intention, or is it one of those...sorta things that can sneak in if there's a mistake or loophole?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"It can be avoided with intention. It was absolutely a mistake and as soon as it was originally indicated the whole venture should have been aborted," said Ezra. "And there was a time when Melany would've considered herself self-sacrificing, too. I wouldn't count on good intentions lasting."

He sighed. He rubbed a corner of the new Charter between his thumb and forefingers. "I would like to be able to put this away. It makes me nervous to have it out like this."

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

Setting down her pen, America looked at the charter and gave a small nod, "What do I need to do?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Simply set your thumbprint on this junction of lines," said Ezra, tapping the paper just above the indicated spot. "It might hurt for a few seconds."

lizbot

 

[lizbot]

After a moment of consideration, she placed her right thumb down. The pain, as it occurred, did not seem like it was going to be brief at all, at least not until it actually was. But her main thought was relief it had been her right.

She usually held Taym's hand with her left.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Thank you," said Ezra, and he vanished the paper once the blood had dried. Too fast. It had dried too fast. He held out a hand for her to shake, normal as you please. "Do you have any further questions?"

He pressed a slip of paper into her hand, but never took his eyes off her face. Don't look at it yet, his expression said.

lizbot

EZRA'S CONFIDENCE
America cannot reveal just what passed between her and Ezra in this thread, or that Ezra intends to approach others. Should she try, her left hand will begin to burn again; the pain will be such that she will be unable to speak for the duration. She can share anything that happened after she put her fingerprint on the paper, but nothing at all before that. However, in return for this, America has gained a boon. Choose one of these three below:
1. Psychosocial - Once per thread, America can get a read on the general mood of a crowd she's in. This power won't work one-on-one, but if she's faced with a group of more than three people America can get an idea as to what the general mood is. Other mental powers cannot block this very general read on emotional state; Feedback won't cause migraines, and powers blocking others from sensing psychic information simply doesn't function. This power can only be used with player permission. Quote shibrogane to use this power on an NPC.
2. Replicator - America can replicate magical traits from another's physiology through touch. So, for instance, she could replicate Zac's galaxy eyes or Lily's horns. She could also replicate a were's current form. Abilities such as Aleksy's sight or Leila's bug eyes that are not caused by a physical difference in the structure of the body cannot be copied.
3. Marked - America has the mystical ability to 'tie' herself to any single person. While tied to another, America can not only sense their physical state--awake, asleep, injured, or well--but she knows their location and their general mood. She can, if she chooses, speak to her marked person telepathically, or soothe injuries from afar.