you keep dreaming and i'm scheming

[mismanagement]

Who: Maketh Tua, Rey, Henry Percy, Lance Sweets, Nick Valentine.
What: Some needed conversations.
Where: Guard Post
When: Nov 10
Warnings: tbd



It's a normal day, so far as Maketh knows. She's got a mug of good coffee, reports that only need marginal corrections before they can be filed, and no one has killed anyone yet. The day is young but she's hopeful. And in a relatively good mood.

She looks up with a faint smile.

"Oh, hello. I wasn't expecting you."

Comments

[synthedick]

No one has killed anyone today, but people have been killed, hence why Nick is at work, as usual. He'd stepped out for a bit to run his patrol route, spotting Maketh as he returns. He's been so buried in rerouting patrols and trying to make sure that as many people as possible were covered that he hasn't really gotten the chance to speak to her lately.

He should, though. They need to talk.

"I've been trying to do more work around here rather than at home," he replies as he steps over to his desk, tossing some files atop it. Though not necessarily happy about that, it has to be done.

[mismanagement]

More files. Maketh sets them into an orderly pile, nodding to herself. "There's a great deal to be done."

She glances up at him.

"How are you doing, Nick?"

[synthedick]

Nick pauses at his desk. His mind turns over the threats in the city, the threats to the people, and the threats from within the Guard themselves. Lance's remarks turn the gears in his mind, as does the list the Null put out. Prussia's murder. The Guard and everything they've worked for being undermined by someone he respects -- someone who he can't doubt has the best intentions at heart.

He pulls in a breath, sighing. It doesn't help ease the tension in his shoulders in any biological way, but maybe it helps that little part of him that still remembers being a real person. He might not be real anymore, and hell, maybe he never was, but he has plenty of reason to keep trying to do what's good for the city... even if it isn't the easiest thing in the world to do.

Later, he tells himself. He needs to take this one step at a time.

"Not well, frankly," he answers honestly. "Spent a lot of last night trying to rearrange the patrols, keep all the streets covered. It's hard when we never have enough hands around here."

[mismanagement]

"Things have become--complicated."

More so than before. Maketh supposes this is to be expected. She rubs her face with a sigh.

"We need more Guardsmen. There aren't enough. Some citizens have already started hiring themselves bodyguards."

[synthedick]

"It's hard to get more when folks either don't know about us, don't know what it is we do, or don't trust us at all."

There's not much more they can do about the first two: he's had Mello add them to the information for newcomers, and corrected more people than he'd like on the fact that no, they aren't the police. That last point is... well, as Maketh put it, complicated.

"Doesn't help when our own get killed in the line of fire," he offers, wondering just how much Maketh has heard, or if she's been too busy with other projects.

[mismanagement]

Trust. It's something that others have been bringing up lately, a thought that sits sour with Maketh. Because she has been working for the good of everyone, she has, she's a good officer. But the questions--

She blinks.

"...what?"

[synthedick]

"Gilbert Beilschmidt," he answers immediately, his back still to Maketh as he faces his own desk. His metal hand curls against it, bare digits scratching the wood. "Killed over a week ago by a fella named Yukari. Someone close to Curufin. He's dealing with it."

Or so he says. Nick will be following up on that.

[mismanagement]

A week. A full week has gone by since this happened and somehow this is the first that Maketh is hearing about it. She has people, she's been training Rome to become a proper officer, and yet, somehow, this happens. This has happened.

She takes a breath. Lets it out sharp.

"How many people know?"

[synthedick]

"Could be a few. Could be the whole damn city. He told the Null over the network without even putting it behind lock and key."

That's how he found out, after all. Most people probably don't do constant surveillance over the network -- most people have to sleep sometime -- but the fact it was out there at all was unsettling enough. How many others could put together the dots? How many more knew about how close Curufin and Yukari had been, or that Prussia was a member of the Guard alongside the elf?

[circumitus]

Blissful ignorance and Rey used to be good friends. She had spent lifetimes as people who knew little, who knew nothing. Who did what they were told, no matter how much her instincts tried to scream against it. But, more often than not, she was more inclined to go with her gut when it comes to the heart of matters.

Right now, her heart is not in a very good place. Rey attempts to return a smile for Maketh when she steps inside. She tries not to let her memory of their dream together, that life they shared, distract her as she approaches Maketh's workspace, a worried crease in her brow when she realizes many times just how much she cares for this person, and she wouldn't bother being here if she didn't.

"I, um. Need to ask you about something."

[mismanagement]

Oh. Rey.

Maketh's smile is warmer, suddenly. She tucks an errant strand of hair behind her ear and stands. The two of them, well. It's certainly different now. The dream was just that, a dream, but it could represent more. Potentially. They haven't discussed it yet.

In a different world, they're married. It was a false world and built on lies, but not all of it had been awful.

Some of it she even wants to keep.

"Of course. It's good to see you."

[circumitus]

"It's... good to see you, too."

It's also hard not to feel that warmth from Maketh's response upon seeing her. Even harder not to give the same of what she's been given. Rey softens. She doesn't want to go into this hard cold.

After a second, she finds a seat and swings it up to Maketh's desk, dragging the leg of the chair by her own foot. Soon, she's sitting on the chair backwards, arms resting over the back of the seat. She gives Maketh a sincere look. "Do you trust me?"

[mismanagement]

Maketh blinks, surprised. It's a loaded question. Not one that she expected, either. She sits down carefully, watching Rey.

"Of course."

[circumitus]

No matter how she phrases this, it isn't going to be easy. Her shoulders slack.

"I need to know what is going on between you and Hux."

Rey isn't blind. She notices things. More so than she cares to let on sometimes. Usually she's good about keeping her mouth shut, but between catching that man's conversation with the Null and seeing Maketh consorting with him even in places such as her own Speakeasy, Rey feels that she only has one shot at making this right. Before someone close to her gets hurt.

[mismanagement]

"We're working on a weapon." Maketh answers easily enough, though she's frowning. It's not a secret, exactly. "I don't have the skill to develop such a thing on my own."

[circumitus]

Rey purses her lips, mouth tightening into a thin line.

"A weapon for what? And why him? Who is he to you now?"

If it hadn't been for everything she knows about Maketh's past, Rey wouldn't worry. Or, well, she would, but her concern would be elsewhere.

[mismanagement]

"Your masergun," Maketh says, frowning again. She doesn't understand why this is suddenly an issue. "General Hux is an asset to be utilized. Of course I don't trust him. He'll betray me when it's convenient. Currently it is not."

[hotspurred]

"Surely you jest," Henry remarks, briefly raising his eyebrows as he leans his hip against her desk and sets a palm on the wooden surface.

He is unaware of Nick and Lance's discussion, but there is a matter he wants to talk to Maketh about. Regardless of the Guard's efforts to keep the city patrolled, people have been murdered by those allying with the Null. Fortunately they know where it shall lead. Those armed with the god killer will attempt to kill Hope.

He just doesn't know if she is willing to stand between the two. The gods are their oldest enemy, that is true, but whilst everyone's future is tied to the gods' survival, they have no choice.

"I am assigning a permanent guard at Hope's temple 'til this threat is dealt with. Those who achieve the Null's god killer must yet make him manifest. His own ground is the obvious place to attempt that feat. We should prepare to intervene."

Henry pauses, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. He has never pressed Maketh before about the full extent of her plans, but now he feels clarity is required.

“I would know what you devise, Maketh.”

[mismanagement]

"Henry."

Maketh tips her head at him. And though she doesn't argue with him on Hope's temple, the question seems strange to her.

"You know what I devise. My plans remain as they always have."

[hotspurred]

"Even with the Null's latest proclamation?"

Henry presses, to confirm. No change at all? He must believe that there is no secrecy on her part when he is asking her directly. Yet he cannot help but feel it's rather... passive, for Maketh. Though inaction is a choice in itself, Maketh would say if she intended to let things play out with a purpose behind it, would she not? With the Null promising the god killer in no uncertain terms while she is still building an incomplete weapon with that vile cur Hux, surely there is a point at which those two acts cross and cause her a dilemma.

"...Then are you not concerned that a certain acquaintance of yours might seek to obtain the god killer?"

[mismanagement]

Maketh frowns at him. He's being oddly delicate about this. She prefers him blunt. Even when they argue. There's no misunderstanding. "He'll try. More than one of them will likely try. That should be obvious."

She exhales sharply. " I dislike this side of you, Henry. Say what you mean."

[hotspurred]

He frowns right back at her.

"In what way was I unclear? I have just told you that the Guard shall directly hinder Hux under my orders in an act which shall have consequences for your weapon plans. Do you truly foresee no conflict between your involvements?"

[mismanagement]

"If he's foolish, then he deserves to be caught."

She tips her head to the side. Her logic is perfectly fine.

"But he is not, and we will have the weapon soon."

[hotspurred]

"We," he echoes sharply.

Once Henry knew exactly what Maketh meant by that. Yet she forces him to beg like a dog for scraps of her plans, as though they did not build the Guard together.

"So you would use a deliberate act of murder for our ends. Truly?" He doesn't hide his disgust at the notion. "What then? After the god killer is achieved."

[mismanagement]

"Then we have the god killer," she says, calmly. "And we can end this mess like we have been planning since the beginning."