towerofanimus | (no subject)

Characters: The Handmaid and you!
Setting: Around the tower
Format: Starting with action, but I'll match!
Summary: The Handmaid is starting to think that maybe Lord English won't be showing up after all.
Warnings: Nope!

[The Handmaid can't sit still. She's been wandering the tower since late last night, her movements still stiff from her scuffle from the Highblood. She's carrying herself oddly, shoulders hunched as though trying to make herself disappear, and she's quite obviously jumpy, freezing at every unfamiliar movement or sound.

He hasn't arrived yet, and she doesn't understand why. A tiny part of her is daring to hope that he can't reach her here, and that for all of the tower's restrictions and horrors she might actually be free. But even that thought scares her. What is she supposed to do now if that's true? She'd never considering being truly free before. She'd thought she would only escape her servitude with death. She has options, so many it's dizzying and a little bit terrifying.

But then, time could move differently in this universe. Maybe she's only been gone for seconds to him. Of course, if that were true, it wouldn't stop him from arriving the second she did and taking her back. Clearly, that hasn't happened.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I never said that. Most people are terrible.

I know... [Heh...] It's a crime, really. [...actually it probably does at least result in quite a few crimes. Committed against lowbloods. Hff]

You're good at it though?

[She nods.]

Are you?

[Pride in his voice!!!]

Of course. I am, the best of the best.

[Pfffft.]

Says who?

[LKJSDLFJ DON'T YOU PFF AT HIM]

Says the empress' cavalreapers. [...] Before I uh, split with them anyway.

[She peers over at him.]

Why did you split with them?

[Blinks... and looks over at her. She's a lowblood, she should understand... Well... she is also pretty firmly under the heel of someone, so... maybe that's why]

[Shrugs easily] It's... hm. Because I was tired, of them telling us what to do. And being expected to do it... without question. Because I think that we should be allowed to live whatever life we want, even though our blood is warmer and we're shorter lived.

[...heh] Turns out, I guess, that a lot of people agree with me.

[Yeah, she knows. She knows a lot about his rebellion, thanks to Scratch, but she wanted to hear his reasoning for herself.

Of course, his rebellion failed, just like the Sufferer's, and she'd had a hand in it. Maybe not a direct influence, but it was her job to stir up violence and chaos and breed distrust between the castes, after all.

She stays silent, though she does look a bit more brood-y.]

[No... tices...]

Hmm... Did I say something, wrong?

[She blinks, as though surprised by this question. She never gets asked anything like this.]

No.

[There's another pause.]

You're going to die because you couldn't keep your head down. Do you know that? Don't you care?

[Well... he looks... taken aback for a second. Not exactly offended. More curious why she'd feel like she needed to point that out. And then he's just... laughing. Like he hasn't heard that a hundred thousand times before this HAHA]

You don't know, what'll happen. Maybe... I'll die old and uh... equal. [The smile he gives her suggests he believes differently, but that he is really... generally okay with dying on a battlefield for this cause]

[She stares at him, clearly dumbfounded and a little annoyed at his reaction. He won't die equal. His rebellion won't do anything but drive the adults off-planet. She knows this, but something stops her from telling him.]

[HEH]

You look uh... pretty skeptical. But that's okay. I know it's, hard to believe sometimes.

Are you picking fights with the highbloods here, too?

[Sort... of... Rubs the spot on his face where the Condesce cut him the first time, and... side eyes her a little]

They uh... have been coming after me first. Actually. [Which isn't to say he wouldn't pick a fight, just that he hasn't gotten the chance to yet]

[She rolls her eyes.]

That isn't shocking.

[HEH]

It is to me. I mean uh, people are usually so charmed to meet, me.

[She makes a face at him.]

Right.

[Grins. Oh man look at how smug he is jesus]

It's the truth...! I'm surprised it uh, hasn't worked on you.

[Scowls!]

You don't have any charm.

[Totally a lie. If she weren't charmed by him she'd have left by now. Not that she'll ever admit it.]