She's not interested in sticking a knife in him, though she's brought FROM CHAOS along with her in light of recent tensions. If a war's going to break out she's coming at least marginally prepared. In truth, she's half expecting to be kicked out of Thorne any day now, and there's nothing else she can't replace, though it'll take more work than dreaming it without Ronan to watch her back.
Right now she'd just hoped to catch him without his looming other half attached. Once he notices her, she steps into the ring of trees and tries to ignore the sense that they might've been gossiping about her.
"Should I come back later? I'm not interrupting anything private, am I?"
"We were just talking about what a shithead you are," Ronan answers, because she left that wide open. But whatever conversation he was having with his deciduous friends, they've all obviously decided it's over for now. The next time the leaves stir, it's only the ordinary breeze creating ordinary sound.
He gets off his knees, brushing away the grass clinging stubbornly to the rich fabric of his clothes. He's dressed β as usual these days β for strolling royal palace corridors, not traipsing around in nature. Nevertheless, he does the latter more and more since Nocwich. He does a lot of things he shouldn't be doing more and more since Nocwich.
"What's up?" he asks Hennessy, because he knows she didn't come all the way out here for no reason and she's been weird as fuck for a while now.
Hennessy makes a face and lazily flips him the bird for that retort; she's not even especially offended, but he could've waited to hear just how she's been a shithead this time.
At his question, she makes a show of examining her metallic purple nails as though it didn't matter, like she was just here for lack of anything better to do. They both knew better, but she needed the illusion or she wasn't going to start.
"Thought you should know something before anyone else finds out. About Nocwich, and that spell that went wrong."
She still thinks she'd made the best choice she knew how; it just happened to have been the wrong one. Should've stuck to making bad life choices on purpose, honestly.
The humor immediately dissolves from Ronan's face. He knows it's going to be bad because Hennessy's pretending it isn't. He knows it's going to be bad because it's Hennessy.
"You didn't."
Of course she did. Of course she fucking did. Why wouldn't she sabotage the whole thing. It's Hennessy. Sabotage is what she does. He's an idiot. He's such an idiot for trusting her.
She didn't sabotage it on purpose this time, and frankly she thinks she deserves credit for that. And for exercising some manner of caution in the first place.
"Before you say a word, I just want it on the record that I wasn't trying to get anyone hurt. I was, in fact, trying for the opposite of that. Who just goes along with a secret spell they're supposed to take part in without letting anyone see?"
Would she have done it if Ronan had been the one to hand her the card? Probably, yes, even as indifferent to Thorne as a concept as she is. He's earned it; random courier #5 hadn't.
She really did it. She's the reason this all went to shit. She's the reason hundreds or thousands of people are dead. Hennessy.
"It's always the same fucking story with you."
Risk-taking and widespread destruction are just fine with Hennessy when she's doing it for fun, but when it comes to doing the right thing? It's like she's allergic to saving the world. Like she only knows how to end things.
Now that she's sparked the fire, Ronan can't stop. The heat moves from his face to his fists, clenched tight and ready to swing.
Again, the leaves rustle overhead. Seen, they warn him. Greywaren, you will be seen.
And they're right. If he lunges at Hennessy, the commotion will draw the guards, already on high alert for strange behavior from the Summoned. He needs to scale this back.
"You knew we were on a mission," he hisses darkly, forcing his fingers to unwind. "Why did you come if you were just gonna pussy out?"
Her fingers twitch and she clenches her hands into fists to keep from going for her sword. She's not here to stab him, though the desire to take everything straight to eleven and finally get this over with is there, dimly, in the back of her mind. One day the other shoe was going to drop and they'd have an honest go at each other.
She hadn't meant for this to be that day.
"You weren't there. I had to make a choice, and the last time I just went along with what a stranger told me to do you ended up dying, or do you only recall that when it's a convenient way to try and cut me down?"
It's probably fighting dirty to use it just the way she accused him of doing, but when had they ever done anything else?
She doesn't get to rewrite history like that. Ronan stalks forward, not to attack, but to parry her lies.
"You didn't just go 'along with' the Mods. You know damn fucking well that wasn't the reason you killed the ley line. You were pissing yourself and looking for the first excuse to ruin everything. Just like you're doing now."
Hennessy is so tired of having this same argument. It didn't matter if there was enough truth in what he said to make her feel shitty all over again; she was tired of living a life where she had to be so fucking careful not to put a foot wrong. Had she subconsciously wanted to ruin things? Maybe. She hadn't thought so at the time, but maybe. It's not as though she can go back in time and ask herself.
"At least I have the conviction to make my own shitty choices. Do you enjoy unquestioningly following orders, or are you just far enough up Kylo's ass that you no longer have to?"
She knows she's being unfair; Ronan had worked to earn his own status in Thorne, but right now she's just trying to find a barb that hurts. She's not sure why she'd been stupid enough to try to come to him as a friend to begin with; they weren't anymore, were they?
For a moment, Ronan just stares at Hennessy. Then something shifts in his expression. It begins with his eyes, their blue intensifying like a flash of lightning as they narrow. A mirthless smile tugs at his lips, drawing across his face until his teeth are bared and ready to snap at her.
But he doesn't snap. He laughs.
It's an ugly, cruel sound. It cuts through her accusation like a knife. Because she isn't just wrong in her assumption. She's wrong about all of it. So far off the mark she's as good as blind.
Just as quickly as his laughter erupted, it dies. "You wish," he says, his voice even darker than usual. "Wouldn't that be so much easier for you? You don't have to think about how bad you're fucking me if you can tell yourself you're fucking them. That's how you can pretend it wasn't me you were trying to get rid of all along."
His gaze flicks, then, to something behind Hennessy. Someone behind Hennessy.
"What do you think?" he asks β but he isn't asking Hennessy. "Have I made my choice or am I your mindless pawn?"
Kylo (for indeed it is his menacing shape that has slid into focus somewhere over Hennessy's shoulder) stands exactly where he is, arms folded and face heavy with an expression of distinctly unamused curiosity. Drawn to the drama of the scene by the writhing tangle of emotions Ronan's unwilling ward always seems to inspire in him and infuriatingly capable of appearing without warning despite his overlarge size, it's impossible to tell just how much of the conversation he was witness to. Perhaps, considering his peculiar set of abilities, it's irrelevant. He knows enough.
"I think," he says, somehow both cool and irritable at the same time, "that if you were my mindless pawn I would spend less of my time waiting for you."
It's Hennessy he has his eyes on, though. Either he knows exactly what she's done, or he's been waiting for her to do something like it all this time.
It's hard -- not entirely impossible, but difficult -- to intimidate Hennessy, considering most days she genuinely would rather tempt death than have a serious conversation, which this is rapidly becoming. Still, she's always been half-convinced that Kylo's going to murder her sooner or later. She doesn't even blame him, much. But she does resent the fact that he can still intimidate her with his sheer presence sometimes, without even the direct threat of murder on the table.
She's not sure yet whether it is or not, which just makes her meaner. Uncertainty is the worst.
"Sorry, am I keeping Ronan from something more important than confessing my sins? Important wizarding business? Orgy to which I've sadly not been invited?"
She shoots Ronan a resentful look as though somehow she's the one who's been betrayed. She doesn't know for sure whether or not he's telepathically summoned Kylo here, but given the latter's status as a mind-reader, it seems reasonably likely.
Ronan returns that look with a shitty grin, refusing to reflect the same resentment she's directing his way. Hennessy doesn't have a right to hate him. He's done everything he could to try and save her, though all she's done is kick and scream and murder him over it.
It ends now.
"You're all out of second chances," says Ronan breezily as he shoulders past her to join Kylo instead. Whether or not Ronan intended to summon him, he's glad Kylo's here now, because it takes the burden of the decision off his own shoulders. Hennessy can confess to Kylo in her own words, if she likes, or she can stand there like an idiot while Ronan and Kylo deliberate her fate. Either way, Ronan is spared the agonizing question of whether to betray the person who is always betraying him.
Nothing about Ronan's acidic tone or sharp words gives any indication he needs or wants anything from anyoneβ but Kylo, at least at rest, is perhaps more accurately a reader of hearts than minds. As Ronan pushes past Hennessy to take his place at Kylo's side, Kylo unfolds his arms. A hand settles, lightly but not idly, at Ronan's back. He assesses Hennessy. He weighs Ronan's heart.
What does Ronan truly want him to do?
"I was waiting for Ronan to bring me anything he learned from the trees about the situation beyond our borders," he decides to inform Hennessy.
Our borders. He chooses his words deliberately. His eyes never lose their focus on Hennessy's face.
"The mages don't know yet how it was accomplished and after this and Oliver's assault last year some among them believe the enemy must have an agent in the Castle. Were you responsible, Hennessy? For any of it. I can't help you if I don't know."
The problem with it all is that Hennessy doesn't want Kylo's help; not merely for Ronan's sake. She's tired of being indebted to someone who'd just as soon kill her if Ronan said the word. She'd rather take her own chances with Thornean justice and die with her pride intact.
For a moment her eyes flash defiance and she looks ready to spit in both their faces. But she's not going down for something she didn't do, not the way she's being accused of. Lord knows she's done enough all on her own.
"I fucked up the spell, but I'm not anyone's spy. Wouldn't you have picked up on it by now if I were, o mind reader who shares a living space with me?"
She may be petty, angry and half-suicidal most days, but she's not stupid.
Ronan doesn't need to be a mind reader to know that. Hennessy would be the world's shittiest spy, starting with her inability to take orders and ending with her complete lack of poker face.
"I think you fucked it up because you hate everything Thorne's trying to do. You want to kill the Singularity just like you killed the ley line. You're on Team Hennessy and all Team Hennessy cares about is wrecking everything."
And yet.
And yet he's praying Kylo doesn't take this to Jolene. Not because he vouched for Hennessy and he'll suffer the punishment, too, but because he wants Hennessy to be okay. He doesn't know why Hennessy is always trying to stop him from making sure she's okay.
What Kylo doesn't say is that he knows exactly what dreamers are capable of, and that if she wanted to conceal her actions from a telepath all she would have to do is imagine something that couldβ and for a few reasons, really. Mainly, it just isn't a good idea to put anything like that in her head. It doesn't serve him. Of course, it would also enrage her. Hennessy hates to be reminded of the abilities she could possess if only she could push past the Lace by herself, and while Kylo considers her lingering dysfunction some kind of affront to his own beliefs he has to admit it is... useful. If she were freed of her limitations while still harbouring this bitter mistrust of Thorne, he'd have little choice but to take care of the problem. And that could be complicated in ways he isn't willing to examine until forced.
Instead, he waits for Ronan to finish spitting venom of his own, looming solid and immovable. His eyes don't stray from Hennessy's face, and he speaks up swiftly once Ronan is done, cutting off the customary returning monologue full of empty bluster before she has the chance to unleash it.
"There isn't room for ambivalence," he says. "No neutrality. No middle path. If you are to surviveβ if any of us are to survive, Thorne must prevail. Do you understand?"
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nightwash) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
abraxaslogs2022-09-03 06:16 pm
no subject
Right now she'd just hoped to catch him without his looming other half attached. Once he notices her, she steps into the ring of trees and tries to ignore the sense that they might've been gossiping about her.
"Should I come back later? I'm not interrupting anything private, am I?"
no subject
He gets off his knees, brushing away the grass clinging stubbornly to the rich fabric of his clothes. He's dressed β as usual these days β for strolling royal palace corridors, not traipsing around in nature. Nevertheless, he does the latter more and more since Nocwich. He does a lot of things he shouldn't be doing more and more since Nocwich.
"What's up?" he asks Hennessy, because he knows she didn't come all the way out here for no reason and she's been weird as fuck for a while now.
no subject
At his question, she makes a show of examining her metallic purple nails as though it didn't matter, like she was just here for lack of anything better to do. They both knew better, but she needed the illusion or she wasn't going to start.
"Thought you should know something before anyone else finds out. About Nocwich, and that spell that went wrong."
She still thinks she'd made the best choice she knew how; it just happened to have been the wrong one. Should've stuck to making bad life choices on purpose, honestly.
no subject
"You didn't."
Of course she did. Of course she fucking did. Why wouldn't she sabotage the whole thing. It's Hennessy. Sabotage is what she does. He's an idiot. He's such an idiot for trusting her.
The leaves rustle overhead. Ronan takes a breath.
"What happened?"
no subject
"Before you say a word, I just want it on the record that I wasn't trying to get anyone hurt. I was, in fact, trying for the opposite of that. Who just goes along with a secret spell they're supposed to take part in without letting anyone see?"
Would she have done it if Ronan had been the one to hand her the card? Probably, yes, even as indifferent to Thorne as a concept as she is. He's earned it; random courier #5 hadn't.
no subject
"It's always the same fucking story with you."
Risk-taking and widespread destruction are just fine with Hennessy when she's doing it for fun, but when it comes to doing the right thing? It's like she's allergic to saving the world. Like she only knows how to end things.
Now that she's sparked the fire, Ronan can't stop. The heat moves from his face to his fists, clenched tight and ready to swing.
Again, the leaves rustle overhead. Seen, they warn him. Greywaren, you will be seen.
And they're right. If he lunges at Hennessy, the commotion will draw the guards, already on high alert for strange behavior from the Summoned. He needs to scale this back.
"You knew we were on a mission," he hisses darkly, forcing his fingers to unwind. "Why did you come if you were just gonna pussy out?"
no subject
She hadn't meant for this to be that day.
"You weren't there. I had to make a choice, and the last time I just went along with what a stranger told me to do you ended up dying, or do you only recall that when it's a convenient way to try and cut me down?"
It's probably fighting dirty to use it just the way she accused him of doing, but when had they ever done anything else?
no subject
"Bullshit."
She doesn't get to rewrite history like that. Ronan stalks forward, not to attack, but to parry her lies.
"You didn't just go 'along with' the Mods. You know damn fucking well that wasn't the reason you killed the ley line. You were pissing yourself and looking for the first excuse to ruin everything. Just like you're doing now."
no subject
"At least I have the conviction to make my own shitty choices. Do you enjoy unquestioningly following orders, or are you just far enough up Kylo's ass that you no longer have to?"
She knows she's being unfair; Ronan had worked to earn his own status in Thorne, but right now she's just trying to find a barb that hurts. She's not sure why she'd been stupid enough to try to come to him as a friend to begin with; they weren't anymore, were they?
no subject
But he doesn't snap. He laughs.
It's an ugly, cruel sound. It cuts through her accusation like a knife. Because she isn't just wrong in her assumption. She's wrong about all of it. So far off the mark she's as good as blind.
Just as quickly as his laughter erupted, it dies. "You wish," he says, his voice even darker than usual. "Wouldn't that be so much easier for you? You don't have to think about how bad you're fucking me if you can tell yourself you're fucking them. That's how you can pretend it wasn't me you were trying to get rid of all along."
His gaze flicks, then, to something behind Hennessy. Someone behind Hennessy.
"What do you think?" he asks β but he isn't asking Hennessy. "Have I made my choice or am I your mindless pawn?"
no subject
Kylo (for indeed it is his menacing shape that has slid into focus somewhere over Hennessy's shoulder) stands exactly where he is, arms folded and face heavy with an expression of distinctly unamused curiosity. Drawn to the drama of the scene by the writhing tangle of emotions Ronan's unwilling ward always seems to inspire in him and infuriatingly capable of appearing without warning despite his overlarge size, it's impossible to tell just how much of the conversation he was witness to. Perhaps, considering his peculiar set of abilities, it's irrelevant. He knows enough.
"I think," he says, somehow both cool and irritable at the same time, "that if you were my mindless pawn I would spend less of my time waiting for you."
It's Hennessy he has his eyes on, though. Either he knows exactly what she's done, or he's been waiting for her to do something like it all this time.
no subject
She's not sure yet whether it is or not, which just makes her meaner. Uncertainty is the worst.
"Sorry, am I keeping Ronan from something more important than confessing my sins? Important wizarding business? Orgy to which I've sadly not been invited?"
She shoots Ronan a resentful look as though somehow she's the one who's been betrayed. She doesn't know for sure whether or not he's telepathically summoned Kylo here, but given the latter's status as a mind-reader, it seems reasonably likely.
no subject
It ends now.
"You're all out of second chances," says Ronan breezily as he shoulders past her to join Kylo instead. Whether or not Ronan intended to summon him, he's glad Kylo's here now, because it takes the burden of the decision off his own shoulders. Hennessy can confess to Kylo in her own words, if she likes, or she can stand there like an idiot while Ronan and Kylo deliberate her fate. Either way, Ronan is spared the agonizing question of whether to betray the person who is always betraying him.
no subject
Nothing about Ronan's acidic tone or sharp words gives any indication he needs or wants anything from anyoneβ but Kylo, at least at rest, is perhaps more accurately a reader of hearts than minds. As Ronan pushes past Hennessy to take his place at Kylo's side, Kylo unfolds his arms. A hand settles, lightly but not idly, at Ronan's back. He assesses Hennessy. He weighs Ronan's heart.
What does Ronan truly want him to do?
"I was waiting for Ronan to bring me anything he learned from the trees about the situation beyond our borders," he decides to inform Hennessy. Our borders. He chooses his words deliberately. His eyes never lose their focus on Hennessy's face.
"The mages don't know yet how it was accomplished and after this and Oliver's assault last year some among them believe the enemy must have an agent in the Castle. Were you responsible, Hennessy? For any of it. I can't help you if I don't know."
no subject
For a moment her eyes flash defiance and she looks ready to spit in both their faces. But she's not going down for something she didn't do, not the way she's being accused of. Lord knows she's done enough all on her own.
"I fucked up the spell, but I'm not anyone's spy. Wouldn't you have picked up on it by now if I were, o mind reader who shares a living space with me?"
She may be petty, angry and half-suicidal most days, but she's not stupid.
no subject
Ronan doesn't need to be a mind reader to know that. Hennessy would be the world's shittiest spy, starting with her inability to take orders and ending with her complete lack of poker face.
"I think you fucked it up because you hate everything Thorne's trying to do. You want to kill the Singularity just like you killed the ley line. You're on Team Hennessy and all Team Hennessy cares about is wrecking everything."
And yet.
And yet he's praying Kylo doesn't take this to Jolene. Not because he vouched for Hennessy and he'll suffer the punishment, too, but because he wants Hennessy to be okay. He doesn't know why Hennessy is always trying to stop him from making sure she's okay.
no subject
What Kylo doesn't say is that he knows exactly what dreamers are capable of, and that if she wanted to conceal her actions from a telepath all she would have to do is imagine something that couldβ and for a few reasons, really. Mainly, it just isn't a good idea to put anything like that in her head. It doesn't serve him. Of course, it would also enrage her. Hennessy hates to be reminded of the abilities she could possess if only she could push past the Lace by herself, and while Kylo considers her lingering dysfunction some kind of affront to his own beliefs he has to admit it is... useful. If she were freed of her limitations while still harbouring this bitter mistrust of Thorne, he'd have little choice but to take care of the problem. And that could be complicated in ways he isn't willing to examine until forced.
Instead, he waits for Ronan to finish spitting venom of his own, looming solid and immovable. His eyes don't stray from Hennessy's face, and he speaks up swiftly once Ronan is done, cutting off the customary returning monologue full of empty bluster before she has the chance to unleash it.
"There isn't room for ambivalence," he says. "No neutrality. No middle path. If you are to surviveβ if any of us are to survive, Thorne must prevail. Do you understand?"