tushanshu_logs | open audience;

open audience;

Characters: The Ironwood Emperor and anyone who came to speak with her!
Date: November 15th.
Location: The Palace of Landed Sky
Situation: The expected holding of an audience for any that care to speak with the Ironwood Emperor.
Warnings/Rating: N/A; to be updated if necessary

The hall is still and white, strung with softly glowing lanterns that are strung up high beyond reach. Outside, the sun is at its zenith, and it filters down through the cloudy glass roof to create a brilliant, nearly blinding ambiance.

The floor is marble, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ruby quartz. It catches the light, and casts strange patterns on the walls.

The Emperor is painting today, broad sweeps of colour across canvas. She's dressed very simply, with no ornamentation, and every once in a while she'll stop to wipe her brow with her arm, which has resulted in more than one smudge of paint on her cheek or forehead. She seems to be in a decent mood today, at least?

[Actionspam or prose are both acceptable!

Characters will only be admitted into the hall one by one, so there won't be anyone present for anyone else's conversations, and there won't be any 'mingling' in the chamber itself.

By popular demand, we will continue to allow mingling for those waiting for an audience in an antechamber. There is a thread header below to allow for that!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It was only the direct request that prompted Jack to show up to this audience. The spirit didn't want to bring up the children's disappearances right now, not so soon after Victoria had gone back home. And while she unlike Gavroche had not arrived after an incident which had taken her life, her own situation was complicated and he couldn't be certain she'd be all right. It left him feeling aimless and fretful and guilty to where he wasn't even enjoying the sudden change in weather patterns as he would have liked to.

He watches Eshai painting for a moment after entering, glad to see that the deep weariness of her last message has somewhat faded and decides the painting is at least friendlier than sword practice. This woman certainly gives new meaning to multitasking.

"It looks like you're feeling a bit better," he said carefully.

She spares him a glance. She's currently working on what looks like a landscape of the palace, awash all in the blues and whites of winter. "Relatively speaking, yes. How are you, Jack?"

"Relatively you don't look like you're about to keel over," the spirit clarified. "And I'm... all right. Thank you for asking."

A pause as he realizes that sounds as empty as when he offered the assurance to his friends who'd asked. "It's nice to see some natural snow around here," he added to fill the silence, looking at the painting.

"It's been a while since I've seen it," she confesses. "I grew up in northern Vailequios, it was very much like this." A sigh, and then she paces to her throne and sits, and then gestures at Jack.

"Speak."

The name is unfamiliar to him of course, but the nostalgia attached to it isn't. "If you... I mean, not right now since there's already snow here but if you wanted, I can make snow in a certain area that'll last a while. For future reference. If you felt like painting snow-scapes or just..."

Enjoying it.

He shrugs after a moment, sure she can decipher the intent of the offer. At her question he purses his lips, tried to condense an enormous feeling into a tangible question.

"Why do you bring people here who aren't alive anymore, where they're from?"

She acknowledges the offer with a slight incline of her head, and then she shifts until she's resting her chin on her palm. "As with the children I bring, there are sometimes... mistakes in the process."

She takes a breath, trying to find the words. Then, "Imagine you're fishing. For a very specific sort of fish, you understand. But that fish is rare, and hard to catch, so you have to make sure your net is wide. And sometimes you don't get the right one. Souls do not cease to exist because the body dies, Jack. So sometimes, I catch them as well."

The analogy is kind of ironic given that he runs a fishing shop here in the city, but he nods anyway. "I understand the metaphor," Jack answers. "The problem isn't the 'catch' part of your catch and release. You bring them here and they get to have another chance at living but then..."

He's yet to see anyone in they position who has died of old age, meaning that they were all taken before their time (like he was; he can't help but draw those parallels) and he is too close to this (he's supposed to be a Guardian and they're children and his friends and he's all but useless to help them) and he thinks he should probably step away if he knew how.

"I don't send them away," she says sharply. "If it were up to me, they would remain here, or return to a gentler time. Jack, I do everything I can. It's not enough. Must you remind me?"

A sharp intake of breath at the rebuke and then Jack lowers his head. "No," he replied shamefully, realizing he'd been out of line. Not for fear of impropriety... not even of her temper but because that had been a vicious thing to ask of someone who had no better control over the situation than he did. (Somewhere, Pitch is gloating about being right.)

"No, you're right. I didn't..." Think-- he didn't think before he spoke, as usual.

"I shouldn't have said that," he said and then added because he found he genuinely was, "I'm sorry."

She doesn't reply immediately. Instead, she pinches the bridge of her nose and then inhales, a little unsteady. She doesn't even acknowledge him having spoken, less she give away more of herself than she intends to. "What else?"

Jack shakes his head mutely, not trusting himself to ask anything else for fear of making things worse. But then he thinks of something else and risks it, as it's for others rather than himself.

"I've been... after Pepper left, I've been trying to run the welcoming committee. The shop gives me some money to do it." Mostly because Jack himself hasn't taken a regular wage for working there since he took over. "I can give some of them jobs until they get used to the regular kinds of work in the city, like uh. A temp agency, a little bit." He wasn't sure she'd know the reference, but he plowed ahead anyway. "I try to find them regular work with the kedan. Not that everything you have arranged isn't good, with getting people housing and all the basics so they're not starting with nothing, because that's been a lot of help. So thank you for that."

He rubbed the back of his neck but since she hadn't had him sent away yet, he continued.

"Anyway, uh-- if I could ask, the kedan who get people squared away when they first get here. The ones that teach people about the consoles and all that? If you could have them let the new arrivals know that it exists? I mean, there's no real place for it yet, just the shop. They don't have to visit or anything, just so they know about it. But some people don't use the consoles right away so... they could need help and not know where to get it in a strange city with strange people."

She purses her lips, considering the proposal. "That is not much trouble, I can do that."

Oh. That had been startlingly easy and the surprise is clearly reflective in his expression.

"Thank you, your majesty. If I get a proper place for it later, I'll ask that you pass it along but for now it's at [Water Sector shop address]."

Yes, well, she's not always an irascible harpy.

"It would be better served if you moved it to the central kiosk, where the Sectors all meet," she says. "That way no one will have to walk or traverse any greater distance. You need a permit to set up there, generally, as it's a very valuable area to merchants, but I can see one is provided for you."

(lbr she's far more sphinx than harpy.)

"Really?" Jack brightens. "You would? Thank you!"

"I'll have the paperwork drawn up and delivered to your suite," she says mildly, and then she returns to her easel and picks up her brush. "Do you have any other recommendations for dealing with the winter weather in regards to the foreigners? I'm not particularly bothered by it, but I realize not everyone is so...hardy."

The spirit perks up impossibly even more, glad to at least be of some use. "If you could make available a few places around the city where people can stop in and get warmed up and especially have their layers dried somehow. The cold is easier to handle if people aren't soaked through when they're out in it. I can see about trying to keep it to a drier cold," he added thoughtfully, which was going to be a challenge given the turtle was swimming in the ocean but he looked forward to figuring it out.

"Other than that, the vouchers have been great."

"Hmm. I'll see about it. Thank you, Jack. You're free to go." She turns away from him, not quite dismissive but with the sense of being done with the conversation regardless.

"Good day Emperor Eshai," he answers, returning the use of his name with one of her own, albeit still with proper title. He has something new to focus on now and while that didn't abate the grief he felt for those lost once again after their disappearances, it was at least productive.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

open audience;

Jack Frost

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