[prp] bistro brunch (eve + renard)

[shibrogane]

"I don't have the foggiest idea," said Renard. "What I was doing was unprecedented, and I kept it close to my chest. Those who knew what I was doing from before had reason to believe that I was already dead and my research destroyed. I presume... Ming was my apprentice, or something like it. He had a fondness for snooping where he wasn't permitted. It's possible he misread my files, misunderstood the work, and never spoke to me about it."

He said, "Many of his generation believed the best thing to do was to... forget. Surely nothing like what I was working to prevent would happen again. But it wouldn't stop, and the people I loved were still coming to harm because they dared to be different. How could I stop simply because the disease I'd intended to destroy was under control?" He said the last with heavy irony. "Aleksy killed himself," he said. "He couldn't cope with what had been done to him. Jamie and Shi died in police custody. Temperance contracted AIDS while working in a hospice; Zachary got it from a lover, and died; Jerry was beaten to death outside Andromache."

Renard said, "It wasn't going to stop unless someone did something. I was trying to do something. Turn back the clock, prevent it... go forward in a better world."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

He didn't know? That was either the truth or the boldest lie of the new century. Having learned what she had here, Eve wouldn't be surprised to learn it was the truth.

"Personally, if that were my goal... the 1600's might've been my place to start," Eve replied, darkly. The bitterness of her tone wasn't directed at Renard, though. "I'm not saying that to give you hindsight you don't need, I mean it. I understand why you kept working."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I didn't want to go so far back," said Renard, but he had a crooked smile thing happening in his face that he didn't seem sure what to do with. "I wanted to reset from the seventies and destroy the virus before it got anywhere. Hide the evidence of my work in the cultural shift after Vietnam."

He looked down at his plate, the smile disappearing. "I didn't want anyone to ever know what I'd done. I only wanted my family to live."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"So the cycles came about as a consequence of caging you, specifically?" Eve guessed.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"What I believe happened is the magic became... internalized. Their seal didn't account for how very close I was to finishing my work, or how unstable the construction was. It became part of their sigil. But the sigil was specifically built to counter-act the parts of my research that were known to them: the medical piece and the shift in attitude. So the part they didn't know about, the time component, was uncounteracted and in fact strengthened by the elements of their sigil." Renard sighed. "This is all conjecture. I may never know for sure. Until the Court, I couldn't even enter their otherworld. All of the magic that was mine was given shape as Ascencion."

He used his knife to lessen the amount of fruit and toast on his knife, then ate it. "So yes. And it was an amazing piece of spellwork for a group of children."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"That's that, then."

A simple explanation over food made everything seem much less dire in hindsight than it was when everyone was still trying to learn what was going on.

"What have you been up to since your... return?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard said, "I don't think you really want to know that." That weird half-smile came back. "I'm trying to break the sigil I helped create."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Oh."

That was definitely politespeak for plotting to kill the new principals.

Well, ******** class="quote">

shibrogane

[shibrogane]

"Through magical means," said Renard, giving her a look like she had huffed the stupid gas that morning or something. "I have no plans to harm anyone.

"I did what I did in the Void to prevent the sigil from centering around my daughter. I failed. I may not have wanted her, but she is here now, and I will not have her will or her life shackled to the whims of others."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Eve settled back in her chair, took a deep breath, and looked carefully back at Renard. "You're working to free your child," she summarized. "That's hardly evil. If you're not going to cause any harm, why would I not want to know?"

Was Renard aware opening the new cage was a possibility?

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Because your intent was to frame the new cage around her," said Renard. "I know who made what decisions. Yours were diametrically opposed to mine. Your intent was good, I'll acknowledge that. But your execution is fundamentally flawed."

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"And I'll acknowledge that," Eve replied.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard shrugged. "Either way, you're much more attached to the people of this cycle than I am. The versions of these people that I knew have been dead for thousands of years. So my methods are likely to be less..."

He closed his eyes. "I don't intend to hurt anyone," he said. "But if my choices are to break the cage and cause pain or leave the cage closed and leave my daughter to suffer?" He looked at Eve. His eyes were blue as the ocean and there was something weird about them, something almost as eldritch as that broken Sunny in the forest. "What would you do if it was someone you..." He hesitated. "Loved?"

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Waving to the waitstaff for her check and a box for her eggs, Eve answered, "I don't know." She was trying to keep her cool in front of the scary man. Clover whined a little beneath the table.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Then you're lucky, aren't you," said Renard, sitting back in his chair. He had a weird look on his face, but at least he wasn't doing the ocean-eyes thing anymore.

cibarium