I predict a riot.

[al-shairan.livejournal.com]

“The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.”
- Shakespeare

Monday lunchtime, near the sheriff's office, on Main Street

This has proved almost too easy. The clouds are rolling in, air heavy with the promise of rain, and I stand in my Danika body wearing an old coat with the collar turned up against the cold, jacket short enough to show a few inches of a tidy, worn work dress and a calflength of wool stocking. My shoes wear the signs of good, honest farm labour, and my blonde hair is frizzing round my face in the damp air. I look very distressed.

"Did - was there really a man arrested for... for beating on a girl?" I say to an old woman gossiping with her friend on the street. My fingers flutter together anxiously.

"Oh yes," she says, "it's a horrible thing. They think also he did in a girl as worked at - well, the brothel, my dear," she says, lowering her voice over that salacious detail, eyes gleaming with prurient interest. "They think he chopped her up."

"Oh," I say, and I faint very neatly to the ground. It's not long before I have half a dozen people round me - offering water, saying they will take me to the Dormouse, fussing with my coat collar to let me breathe.

"I should've said something," I say, and I burst into tears. That gets me sat down on a bench, an old woman's arm around my shoulders, and a very handsome young man crouched at my feet. "I should - "

"What is is, dear? Do you know something about what happened to those girls?"

I shake my head tightly.

"I know - I know - him," I say quietly. "He - We went out a couple of times, and he was - he was real nice to me, and -" The old woman gives me a handkerchief. "You know, I ain't really dated much," I say, shamefaced, "cos my momma's sick a bunch and I'm busy out on the farm, and he just - he was real nice, and when he -" I turn my face away, and I can feel the vibrating tension from the boy at my feet, his desire to be a hero. "He - I thought it was my fault," I say, and then there is a furious chatter rising from the little crowd, and the conversation spreads in ripples.

"Some carnie's been carving up our girls," one man says fiercely. And there is discussion of me and of Melania - ah, yes, that explains some of what I saw in her - and how we're hard working girls, salt of the earth girls, and who is this monster and why hasn't he been strung up? What the hell is wrong with this town that a murderer and molester can be caught redhanded and he's cosseted in jail? And did you hear that he attacked that nice Mrs Beddau (I wonder if at any other time Glass has been described as nice) when she went to visit him in prison? He should be put in the old stocks in town. People would show him how they felt, alright. They'd show him very clearly indeed.

I manage a brave, trembling smile for the boy at my feet, and he springs up, ready for something, anything, if it will make me look at him like that again. And I nestle in against the arm of the old woman as the crowd grows larger and voices grow louder, and I wait for the storm to break.

[OPEN]

Comments

[iago-excolo.livejournal.com]

How the fuck I ended up here, I couldn't tell anyone. Well, I could but that's a tale unto itself. Verdi's stronger than she looks and I suppose being invisible helps as well. She said it wouldn't last more than hour or so and I truly hope that will be long enough.

Her feeble offer to leave when ever I'd like, ohyes, as if that's possible. I snort, not liking how vague she is about how. Fuck me. I hate when she's vague, and now I have to wait for 'the signal' as well.

For the fourth time, I ask what the fuckin' signal is, and lo and behold, an answer, "Miao screaming or Mab falling. If that happens, you go back and lock the doors. Thomas already knows to not let anyone leave but he'll need help defending the Tavern if the riot moves that way."

I give her a mock-salute, a grim smirk on my face as I say, "Yes, ma'am." I look back to the tavern, praying my love stays safe and sound behind its walls as I begin to consider how I might make it home quickly enough to do what Verdi wants.

[norn-verdandi.livejournal.com]

From my vantage point, I watch as Deputy Jack engages two armored riders in battle. He seems to be holding his own but two against one are bad odds, especially when horses are involved. Mab should be coming out at anytime now and she'll help him knock some heads around, before quelling the mob and sending them home crying. I really don't think she'll fall in battle and Miao hasn't screamed yet either so I'll just have to wait for something else, something significant.

It's not a long wait either and as I'm positioning myself above one of Mab's apartment windows (http://community.livejournal.com/estdeus_innobis/377832.html?thread=9663720#t9663720), a reverberation shakes the roof under my feet. There's a shadow of scissors over threads, leaving the taste of sjaund on my tongue and I know that Azrael is inside, somewhere below me.

That's close enough to a signal for me and I turn to Iago, saying, "It's time. Go."

[iago-excolo.livejournal.com]

"Go," she said. And I wanted to, truly, but no sooner than Verdi was gone than I began having problems. The most important being of how to get off this damned roof. I suppose I could try to climb back down but with that crowd so close, it won't be easy. It's not like they can see me anyway, and as I swing a leg over, I'm slightly winded.

I have to get home to Milady Glass but instead I sit there, attempting to take a full breath and failing. Maneuvering myself away from the edge, I clear away a snow drift and seat myself. I'll leave as soon as I can breathe right again. Wouldn't want to fall and have to explain that as well. My love's quite sharp when she's inclined.

Damn snow and fuckin' Excolo. Since I'm already here anyway and not leaving anytime soon, I lean back and light a smoke. Maybe I'll lob a few snowballs off the roof. It's not like they can see me anyway, and I chuckle evilly as I slowly began to fashion an iceball or two.

[norn-verdandi.livejournal.com]

I help Miao into a sitting position, "Sit as close as you can to the middle. You don't want to slip off." I smile and add, "And don't worry because you won't be alone either."

I point to a spot near her where Iago's cigarette is hanging in mid-air and I ask him, "Couldn't make it off the roof, could you?" I giggle, looking at Miao again before saying, "I have to go back. Mab's downstairs and she might need help." I move back to the edge, asking, "Are you okay from here?"

[lei-miao-shan.livejournal.com]

Verdandi lifts me as easily as a strong man lifts a cushion. It is startling; I know that Verdandi is a goddess, but I had no idea of her physical strength until now. "Hang on," she tells me. "Close your eyes if you have to. Just don't scream or the crowd might notice us."

I do not scream, not when she swings out over the windowsill, not when she climbs up to the roof. Once again, her strength amazes me. I am also numbed to silence by the crowd below us. I see rocks flying, and clubs being waved. There is an armoured figure on horseback driving her mount through the edges of the crowd, struggling to push them back. A riderless horse runs loose through the crowd behind. I see people fleeing down the street, others leaning from doorways or trying to drag injured men and women away. My heart is sick with grief.

In another moment, we are on the roof, and Verdandi sets me down. The roof is slanted, and my legs tremble slightly at the unsure footing. "Sit as close as you can to the middle. You don't want to slip off. And don't worry because you won't be alone either." She tells me, pointing. It takes me a moment to see a lit cigarette, apparently hanging in the air. I inhale the smoke, and it is familiar.

"Iago?" I ask, startled. Oh, Glass must be fretting.

Verdandi glances at me, "I have to go back. Mab's downstairs and she might need help. Are you okay from here?"

I carefully pick my way over to Iago...I am almost certain it is Iago...and sit down with a sigh of relief. I dislike being on my feet on unlevel ground. "Yes, I will be fine here. Thank you, Verdandi." Here I will wait, I suppose. It most likely is safer here than downstairs. "Please, let everyone know that I am well."