you're no protagonist

[pushtheboundaries]

Characters: Krei, Callaghan, & Anton
Date: Marchish, following this TDM thread which we are taking as canon because Reasons.
Location: The Hotel
Situation: Callaghan drags Krei to the Hotel after dragging him out of trouble with some Kedan and finishing the mugging they started. Hi Anton, have his best frenemy, please help keep him out of further trouble.
Warnings/Rating: None except for repressed homicidal thoughts?

---

By the time they reach the Hotel's entrance, Callaghan is relatively certain he's made clear the need for Krei to behave; intimidation is not something he particularly likes, but he reasons it's necessary, here. And even if Krei did talk- who would believe him? Robert's already been here long enough to feel that people would at least doubt, but he doesn't want any sort of rumor undermining what he's begun.

He's barely started to accept he has to make a life here, and now Krei's threatening it all with his mere presence.

But true to his words, he's brought him to safety. Pushing open the doors to the lobby, Callaghan takes a look around, then makes a gesture towards the sitting area.

"Stay there. I'll find Anton and explain."

Comments

[gistful]

"You are my friend and you are troubled," said Anton, folding up the bag, "and I supposed you might need or desire the opportunity to speak your mind properly. I need no occasion other than that. Coffee?"

He uncapped the thermos. He'd brought the beans, of course, but no point in using them up when he could just as easily bring some of his own already ready to drink. All they needed was an extra mug.

[pushtheboundaries]

Those weren't words he'd heard often, if at all, and for a moment it showed; there was a flicker of bemusement across his face before it passed, dropping in to a more neutral expression. "You might be disappointed- there's only so much to talk about," he noted, setting down that second mug on the table.

Only so much he could think of, at least. Well, there was the obvious, but...he was trying not to think about that, to be quite honest.

[gistful]

"You may be surprised." Anton poured the coffee and handed the mug to Callaghan, opting to keep the thermos lid for himself. "I had a friend, a long time ago. He was one of the holiest men I've ever seen--a psychologist before psychology was invented. He always said it isn't the length of the conversation which holds greatest importance, it's the feeling in it."

Of course, Hopeless had also been a mind-reader. That little detail made it very easy to understand people and very difficult to maintain his sense of self. Either way, Anton had heard that very same line directed Hopeless's way far too often to lend it much credence, usually spoken by one or another of the unit. It was a denial more than a truth.

[pushtheboundaries]

Accepting it with a nod, Callaghan mulled over the words as he took a single sip. Another brief flicker in his expression, this one in reaction to the taste, and then it moved back in to pensive.

"So- what feeling were you looking for in this one?"

It's the most polite way he could think of to say say 'get to the point'. Not that he didn't appreciate the gesture and visit, but suspicion only meant so much.

[gistful]

"I haven't the faintest," Anton said easily. "I am no psychologist. But it was rather impossible to miss the tension between you and Mister Krei--" Especially since Callaghan had come to him directly to warn him. "--and I had thought you may appreciate the opportunity to tell me about him in more detail, now we're in private."

Which, Hopeless would say, was just a means to get Callaghan talking and determine the feeling himself.

[pushtheboundaries]

And there it was. Robert took another sip of the coffee, this time to steady himself as he considered just how much to share. What could he say, though? He'd warned him against him, that he wasn't to be trusted, and...wasn't quite dismissed, but he could tell that he'd only been heeded so much. And now Anton came to hear more?

He closed his eyes for a long moment.

"...We were involved in a project, some time ago. It went wrong, and his choices made it worse. Someone...innocent...paid for those, and to this day he considers it all nothing more than a setback."

His tone was flat, tight, and with the way his throat closed off at the end- it all suggested this was not a particularly welcome subject.

[gistful]

For all that Anton wasn't a psychologist, he had been the older brother of eight siblings and spent centuries as the quiet one darning socks around the campfire. After the Hotel had been built, sometimes he heard things only because his patrons knew Mr Shudder didn't press.

The result was that Anton was better at reading between the lines than many gave him credit for being.

"That someone was important to you," he said gently, but it truly was more a statement of fact than a question.

[pushtheboundaries]

It was. And Anton can very well tell that at that point, when Robert opened his eyes, he was deliberately avoiding eye contact.

"My daughter."

She was his everything. And- oddly enough, thinking about all this made his lips quirk, a humorless chuckle of all things escaping him.

"It was a demonstration of portal technology."

Which should also give Anton a bit of explanation for a previous discussion, and his reactions to such.

[gistful]

"Dangerous technology," Anton said with a nod. It did explain a bit. Even in his world, dimensional shunting was among the magicks with the lowest chance of success. He regarded Callaghan for a few moments, sipping the coffee.

It was obvious Callaghan had been badly hurt. The problem was that it was the sort of hurt that led, so frequently, to grudges and revenge. Krei, over the last few days, had struck Anton as spoiled by wealth and occasionally oblivious, but not a malicious man. It was rare for that sort to have dismissed such a price so cavalierly, even if he didn't show it or handle it well.

Anton asked, "How did her mother fare?"

Gently, not unkindly, but without showing undue sympathy. From what Anton had seen, Callaghan was still too angry to accept anything that could be construed as pity.

trying to get phrasing down orz

[pushtheboundaries]

This, at least, was something that he could say without feeling anything but and old, numb ache; "She passed when Abigail was still a child." It hurt, but it was a worn-down sort of pain, and the circumstances were different; no one's poor decisions to blame, only a lack of knowledge and understanding. Oh, those could be railed at, but uselessly so- for Robert, the only acceptable choice was to move on and push forwards.

Not so with Abigail.

Not with his everything.

all good!

[gistful]

So then Callaghan had been alone, with only his daughter and no one to balance his grief. Anton watched him, watched him for a very long moment, and then asked gently: "And what did you do about it, Robert?"

Callaghan was a man of activity. Surely he had felt driven to do something.

[pushtheboundaries]

He didn't do anything, until an impulse thought had taken hold, and he'd set out to accomplish not only the impossible, but arguably mad.

"There wasn't anything I could do," Robert calmly explained, putting those memories aside. "The project's remains were buried, forgotten, and treated as a setback."

The final word was all but spat, but a sip of the coffee was enough for him to regain his composure.

"I hope you understand why I acted the way I did, back there. I don't want Alistair anywhere near a position where he could repeat that kind of action. My entire career," he went on to add, "from that point on was devoted to making sure that he'd never have one of my kids, and that they'd never be like him."

[gistful]

"I understand," said Anton. He understood, possibly, more than Callaghan did, even unknowing of the exact circumstances. He understood also that Callaghan hadn't actually answered the question, or at least not in the way Anton had meant it--not his actions regarding the project's aftermath, but his actions after that. After it became a 'setback'. Rage which lingered was a dangerous thing.

"And I apologise I was not able to respond to your concerns more directly," Anton added, rather than draw attention to that. "Mr Krei is a patron as is everyone else, and therefore he has a right to the same level of courtesy--even a bed, and a right to autonomy by paying for it. That is why you brought him to me, is it not?"

There as a gentle question there. Why did Callaghan bring Krei to the one place he'd be safe from Callaghan, if he still felt so angry?

[pushtheboundaries]

"I brought him there-" and the briefest amount of hesitation, "-to keep him out of trouble. He was getting roughed up by some kedan when I came across him, and I convinced them he wasn't worth their time or trouble."

By means of handing over a few of his own items. Krei owed him, though he wasn't going to bring that up here.

"Your Hotel is the safest place I know," Callaghan added, tilting his head slightly. "And not just because of it's rules. Of course, if he endangers that, by all means turn him out on the street."

He'd deserve it, is the implication.

[gistful]

There was reason there. That was good. It was relieving. As angry as Callaghan was, at least he was still capable of that reason. "I don't believe he will," Anton said, both because it was the truth and to see how Callaghan reacted to it. "He's rather out of his depth. I don't believe he's so foolish as to unsettle that further."

Though if he ever did, of course, break the rules, there would be eviction and possibly a temporary ban. Still, Anton didn't count his chickens before they hatched.

[pushtheboundaries]

"I hope so." The tone suggested Robert only placed so much faith in 'hope'. "But we'll see. You'll let me know if he does get in to trouble?"

His tone was light, as though it didn't matter to him one way or another, and perhaps it wasn't any of his business but..

[gistful]

Anton regarded Callaghan for a long moment. "If it's relevant to you," he said finally, "perhaps. I take the privacy of my patrons seriously, Robert." The fact that Callaghan was so insistently intent on being involved in Krei's business ... well. Anton would like to chalk it up to some degree of paranoia.

He drained his cup and rinsed it, and capped the thermos. "Regardless, I hope you find the food and coffee of use."