[PRP] Ketchup (Jeremiah/Rabbit)

[Smerdle]

It all sounded very aristocratic. But they were Nobles now, so maybe that's how everything should have sounded. Lords Mercer and Vaughn were seen having a tipple at Darlene's today. What new, existence-altering laws might they have been coming up with this time?

"I... went to prom?" He laughed to himself. It had been horrible. "My mom went to a lot of parties, she still does, but there's never any dancing. Just hand shaking and steak." It was probably an American thing. "She never made me go to any of them, at least."

"I'll mention visiting to Sy and Nev though. See what they say. I'm really not looking forward to them moving out or running off to do whatever it is they're meant to. I've already missed so much. I shouldn't keep them from learning though."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"My family holds land and title back in England," Jeremiah admitted with a quiet chuckle, "so my childhood and teenage years dealt with all that that entails." It was not often he talked about it but sometimes it did explain the way he held himself. (Were this years ago, it would also explain why he seemingly did well for himself despite the amount of pay he was getting as a police officer.)

A small smile flicked onto his face, Jeremiah understanding. "Algie said I got a bit of, ah, empty nest syndrome when Zac moved out. I can't really disagree. He had lived with me for years and ... his moving out? It was not exactly a change that I expected to affect me as much as it did."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Title? So he'd been a noble of sorts already before all of this? It explained a lot. It also unearthed a number of questions, the first being 'Why a cop in Massachusetts at all then?' He didn't ask, 1) because it was nosy, and 2) because the sirens were still on his mind.

"Yeah. Empty nest." Literally.

He paused, pushing things around in his head to try and stop the anxious feelings that were bearing down.

"So. If there is some sort of contract we can break and rewrite or whatever, what do you think should be on it? I mean, I can chime in with stuff like 'free the fetches' or 'siren conservation' or whatever, but I'm not sure how to make things clear. Like, binding in the way I actually mean. So stuff doesn't end up all twisted like wishing on a monkey's paw."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Rabbit could have asked but a lot of it would likely be chalked up to being young and uncertain and afraid. Only hindsight could tell him that.

"Magic is heavily based on intent," Jeremiah's voice was low, "so what it takes your intentions and crafts it into something." As it had done with the creation of the Sigil. "I would want to see something put into it about an agreement between a noble and a tithe. You agree upon a time set that you are gone and no death for the final trial. No one whisked away without permission or realizing just what they've fallen into."

Admittedly, however, he was not sure how much of that magic was in place and would have to stay as such. There were other thoughts as well but that was just the first.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Yes. He had felt the difference in using power with purpose during the creation of the sigil. In the otherworld as well. He could handle all of that. It was the words that worried him.

"Just thoughts then. Intent. As long as I don't have to write some presentation defending my choices with pros and cons and diagrams or anything like that, I should be fine."

As far as ideas went, Jeremiah's seemed like a good enough start. He would add lessened fetch involvement in the trials, or an elimination of their role entirely, though not of them. Rehabilitation or definitive jobs for the ones who already existed. He hadn't discussed any of this with Oroh, at least not all at once, but he knew she would give anything to travel freely to this side of Ashdown again.

Rabbit nodded. "I agree. Some sort of hint as to how the trials should go might be nice too." He certainly had no idea how to proceed most of the time.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"There will likely be more than that and I would expect, yes, some defending on ideals and what is wanted but-" Jeremiah shook his head. "We have to know what we want in the end and what we want to say, I suspect. The magic can smooth out the edges but we still have to know."

His fingers tapped against the side of his glass. Some part of him wondered if when he had been within Ezra's household the debates that they had gotten into had been because of this. It was not likely but it still helped.

"Lack of mystery is what would be best. To know what you are getting into, just what it means. If fetches must remain part of it, then ... lessen what must happen." He looked to Rabbit then. "They've existed since before the Court, you know that, don't you?"

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Finally, something he wasn't shocked by or ignorant of. Oroh might not have been terribly forthcoming regarding her own past, but she did love to gossip, and some of her gossip felt as old as time. There were plenty of things she had said that implied a few of the fetches she had known hadn't been bound to the Court.

"I'd guessed that from some of the stuff I've heard. I don't know anything besides what you just said, but yeah. They were human and then they weren't. I mean, I know people can become fetches if they stay on the other side too long, but wouldn't you... not do that if you saw what it had done to someone else?" He shrugged. "I'm not sure if they can be turned into people again after so long, but they should be freed if we can, or yeah, lessened."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Not so much as they were human and then they weren't. It's a process. You may not even know it when it starts to happen to you." Jeremiah took another sip of his drink, his voice still low as he spoke. "The magic essentially rots you from the inside out, kills you. The other method of becoming a fetch, as you know, is failing the trials. They're no longer alive, the living dead."

For a moment he wondered what the price would be to bring the living dead back to life. Aleksy was not alive, not anymore, and there were ghosts ... "Some may not even wish to be free," another consideration, "but to give them a chance at being more again? That would be something, I believe."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Hm." He hadn't thought about it that way, like they had died so slowly they hadn't noticed, but he could see how that could have been a thing. He was doing it right now, or he had been before the noble immortality party.

"At least that, yeah. Something more." Rabbit couldn't conceive of not wanting the opportunity to stop being a wrinkly corpse if given the option, but whatever made them happy.

He was silent for a few seconds more, then he planted his palms on the table and sat up straight. "I think I'm ready then. Kind of. I've got a place to start." At the very least he wouldn't be so far out of his depth this time.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"So long as you have an idea, a place to start, then that's all you need." Jeremiah rubbed his fingers against the table top. "Especially if it is away from what the Court has been, what it's become over these countless centuries."

He clearly had feelings on the matter. "I, personally, want to see consent come back into play. To change the trials, to let people have choices instead." His hand flicked. Instead of being taken, instead of being offered help and not knowing what it meant. "Give freedom if it's wanted. There's a lot of possibility that we are opening up the door for."

Smerdle

LET US TAG THIS FASTER, like good children, lol. *pets rabbit and jer tho*

 

[Smerdle]

"Mmhm. I'm trying to do what Temp wants. We've got a whole... healy thing set up. And I definitely didn't kidnap her." He lowered his voice, realizing how that might sound to someone just passing by.

"But yeah, stuff like that needs to go." He couldn't think of anything to replace the whole situation with, but at least it was a point of discussion. "It's just... a lot to rework, even though it seems like it's not. And if we word it wrong, things could end up just as bad as they are now." He couldn't believe that anyone who had set it up had planned for the court to turn out as it had. It had been Melany going crazy (also unplanned) and twisting the rules that had done that.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It's why we have to be sure of what we want to achieve," Jeremiah spoke quietly, "because of the more we are, the better shape we can give to the magic that we want to create. Our certainty, our will, is what powers things more often than not."

It was the truth of the matter that, in the end, all they wanted would be taken by the magic and given shape.

"I'm glad to hear that Temperance is setting up ... a clinic? That is probably something that will do good for the way Nobles are viewed." He shook his head. "You're doing right, Rabbit. You're making someone stronger and helping them achieve more. That's really what we should aim for when we help others become what we are."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"I guess it is sort of a clinic, sure. With less of a waiting room, at least for now." It was very strange to feel pride in the accomplishments of a fully-grown adult that he wasn't related to, but Rabbit let himself do so anyway, just for a moment.

"I didn't think about, like, press releases or anything, but I could see how that might help. People really don't seem to like us much." Rabbit was used to having to earn the favor of others, considering he gave kind of a mess of a first impression, but that didn't mean he enjoyed doing so. He did have thoughts on the whole 'helping others become what we are' thing, but he needed more time with them before he'd be comfortable sharing. He looked rather intently at his glass for a second, then loosened up and leaned back to face Jeremiah.

"I want to thank you for coming to see me. I feel a lot better about a bunch of things I didn't even know were bothering me."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"The night of the red moon did the Court no favors and most do not look favorably upon the methods it employs. Not press releases, no, but anything that can be done to improve the opinion of the Court? We need to do so. Otherwise, how else can we assist and help? Yes, we are there for those that live there but we also have a duty to the other visitors as well." They were guides when no guides were possible, a source of information that could be achieved.

Jeremiah smiled, just the corners of his mouth twitching up. "Of course. I'm glad that I was able to do so. There's a lot going on, a lot that can make matters heavier a burden, so lightening the load - even a little - is a good thing."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"I'll try. And I'll let you know if I come up with anything that might help." He wouldn't, not for lack of intent, but because impressing people was so far from a skill he possessed that everything he came up with to make them look better was dismissed by his sister as 'too creepy'.

Rabbit paused, considering his drink, then left the dregs and shifted in his seat. "I should go. It's been helpful and weird, and I've had way too many emotions." That was how meeting up with Jeremiah always seemed to be though. At least some things never changed.

azuredreams