World: Castle D'Image
Scene: Fisherman's Way, near the docks, a few days later. Part two of the Downfall-of-Jody plot. :)
Players: Jody = Abby; Hoseah = Diana; Ziela = Ziela's typist
Fisherman's Way joins with Dock Street, entering from the west. Though the street ends, a path is worn southward out onto rocks, leading to Southport's refuse collecting dump. Looking down Dock Street, you see Macpherson's Wharf jutting out into the harbor, a bustle of commercial shipping activity. Looking out at the harbor, you notice that the tide is on the ebb flow. It's cloudy and mild.
Hoseah comes down Fisherman's Way from the direction of Innkeeper's Square.
Jody is just emerging from the boarding house, pocketing his key.
Hoseah strolls down the street, expression set with mild interest in the happenings around him. With a glance he notes your entrance to the street, his path curving minutely to take him directly across yours so that he can nod a greeting and study your face.
Jody's expression hardens as he recognizes the other. He nods curtly and sidesteps to keep going.
Hoseah gives a soft laugh, the sound laced with irony as he comments softly, but not so softly as to not be heard, "Another who complains but lacks the will to change his destiny." His gaze turns to follow you as you move past, eyes amused, his own pace slowing a bit without stopping.
Jody whirls. "Listen, stranger, you goin' to insult me you c'n do it to my face."
Hoseah replies with silken cordiality, "I would have if you were not so busy moving past and onwards, though obviously you heard my words still. Call them not insult, merely accuracy."
Jody spits in the mud. "Call it what I damn' well please. You show up here with your sweet-talk an' your airs-- you don' know what I got to complain about an' it ain't any damn' business o' yours what else I do."
Hoseah turns fully to face you, a fluid motion. The look of cynical denial smooths away after he studies you for a moment. "Perhaps you are correct, good sir. I do not understand your perspective, am locked within my own. Yet your anger and disgust are obvious, one has but to look at you." He takes a half-step back towards you, expression veiled. "What is it, precisely, that causes such strain?"
Jody eyes him. "There you go agin. What's it t'you?"
Hoseah replies without rancor, "Maybe nothing. Maybe there are people who have something in common with you, despite a different background or specific turmoil. A common... let us use the word lightly, but a common enemy makes common friends."
Jody's mouth twists sourly. "Can't afford enemies. Can't afford friends neither. An' I know damn' well they's plenty like me 'n' they can't afford 'em neither."
Hoseah's voice is reasonable, so reasonable as he responds to your bitterness, "Perhaps you should harken to your own words. Plenty of people all in the same situation working together have the power to affect what each complaining individually about can not change."
Jody is unmoved. "You want to say 'at agin in human language?"
Hoseah laughs, amusement showing clearly on his face. "If many people are unhappy, as you say, then many people together can make the difference that one person complaining can't."
Jody, very slowly, begins to grin. A hard, sour, mirthless grin, but a grin nevertheless. "You know what you're talkin' about, stranger? You're talkin' what we tried to do once a'ready. 'S it look like it got anyone anywhere?"
Ziela steps out of the front door of the boarding house.
Jody is standing with arms folded, regarding Hoseah with a humorless grin. He nods curtly to the woman.
Ziela steps from the doorway of the boarding-house, slowly making her way west.
Ziela glances at the two and returns the nod just as curtly.
Hoseah lowers his voice in the conversation he is having with Jody, offering the unique woman a slight nod of greeting. He mutters to Jody, "... an... such as... the... troups... who... there... always..."
"Indeed, an open rebellion such as that is doomed, given the number of troops available to those who oppose such. However, there are always other possibilities."
Ziela keeps moving.
Jody watches the woman go, expressionless; then tosses back his ill-kept hair and looks again to Hoseah. "You don't say," flatly.
Hoseah regards you for a long moment, slowly looking you up and down as if taking your measure. Then, slowly, he shakes his head. "No, I suppose I don't," he replies, tone regretful and brusque. "I don't at all."
Jody snaps, rattled, "Don't you look at me like 'at. --Who the hell are you and what the hell are you after?"
Hoseah replies with a casual attitude, almost dismissive, "Someone interested in do-ers, not talkers. After those who have courage beyond just words, and an enterprising attitude." His gaze goes past you, searching the street for a moment before it focuses on you again. "Looking for those with what is colloquially known as balls. Sorry that I have wasted your time."
Jody's hands clench in his sleeves. "'f I got to beat it out o' you I will. What you want? --An' none o' your fancy talk neither. Spit it out, or get out my face an' off my back."
Hoseah lifts a brow. "Such manners," he says, tsking. "Forgive me if I am not direct. It could be unhealthy for me to be so. Simply put, though, I am looking for those discontent with the current order to continue to take part in... a more quiet rebellion, you could say."
Jody's mouth twists as though he'd just as soon spit again. "My manners're my business." He looks the man up and down a couple of times. "An' you don' look like the type cares a flip about the 'current order'. If," he adds with sour irony, "you'll pardon my sayin'."
Hoseah doesn't rise to the bait. "If you think that only people here or people of one walk of life have problems with it, you are mistaken. My problems are not the same, but they are just as much the fault of... the way things are. I, however, have enough of the resources to pursue changing the way things are, or working around them more." He smiles, a serpent's expression and completely lacking in warmth. "An example, though. Tell me of your troubles."
Jody actually laughs at that. "I don' really think you give a damn about my troubles. An' I'm damn' sure not goin' to tell 'em to someone whose name I don' know, who's done nothin' since I laid eyes on him 'cept to talk in circles an' tell me what a coward I am. How do I know you ain't just tryin' to catch me out? They's a word f'what you want me t'say, an' I seen folks dead real fast for it."
Hoseah's eyes narrow thoughtfully on you again, one corner of his mouth curving upwards. "You don't know that I am not after that. Wise of you to say nothing to me. And I won't lie, I personally don't care about anybody's troubles but my own. However, if it takes other people having a smoother life for me to have one, that is a different matter. I can share the wealth." A silken laugh escapes him.
Jody snorts. "Thass just ever so kind o' you."
Hoseah shakes his head, laughter dying. "Not in the least. Like anyone, I am out for myself. But I have learned the value of teamwork, and having associates."
Jody echoes, cool as you please, "'sociates. 's 'is a 'rebellion' or a flippin' business venture? If I was fool enough to do a thing like 'at, it wouldn' be a matter o' business, le' me tell you."
Hoseah shrugs gracefully to you. "What matter it to me why someone else would seek to work around the present regime? We have the same end in mind. Why you want to do something is for your own reason."
"Yeah," deadpan. "It is."
Hoseah sniffs thoughtfully, looking more closely at you again. "Tell me... Jody was your name, correct? Tell me, what is it you do around here, precisely?"
Jody eyes him. "Jody Lukas. Like you know too damn' well. An' you still ain't told me yours. I do whass offered." With a jerk of his head in the direction of the docks.
Hoseah nods agreeably. "A good place to work. A lot of trade goes by there, a lot of people pass through. You can hear many things there. Many people who have the same feel that you possess, resentment, but they don't know quite what to do or how to deal with it. Is that true?"
Jody seems oblivious to the fact that he's weakening. He scowls. "Might be."
Hoseah echoes your words. "It might be. Even if the rebellion here is over on paper, in people's hearts it hasn't gone anywhere except buried deep so that it can grow like a plant in springtime. But if it comes to the same end that it did before, then all that will happen is loss of life and this city being crushed again. Do you agree?"
Jody eyes him warily. Then gives a curt nod.
Hoseah nods along with you, as if discovering these thoughts together with you. "So somehow things can't go the same. Declaring a rebellion would be bad for this city, would bring troops here so fast the ships would be caught in dry-dock. However, if nothing of a glaringly obvious nature happens, well... We are a long way from the heart of the country here. Are we not?"
Jody concedes shortly, "Sixty mile to Waes."
Hoseah is still nodding, possibly he never stopped. "A great distance, hard for even rumors to spread that far if people are careful, and quiet. What goes on here need not be anybody else's business, regardless."
Jody shoves his hands in his pockets, looking away now toward the wharf, face shuttered.
Hoseah looks along with you towards the docks. "A lot of people with a lot of anger. It might just erupt into fighting and death again, but perhaps it doesn't have to. There are many different ways to avoid the system."
"Yeah?" Neutrally; but not quite as sullenly as before.
Hoseah answers calmly, "Yes. Yes, indeed, and if you are interested in talking, just talking about such, I would like to relax over a drink, somewhere more discreet, to do so." He smiles at you, not particularly friendly but neither is it menacing. "Will you join me for such, my treat, perhaps this eve or tomorrow eve?"
Jody says with a resurge of ill nature, "C'n pay f'my own damn' drink." But: "Where?"
Hoseah shrugs. "The place of choice seems to be that inn over on Spice Street, is it not?"
Jody whistles through his teeth, casting another look askance at the other's elegant clothing. Then shrugs. "Reckon so."
Hoseah frowns, thoughtful, then comments, "If you have another recommendation, I will go wherever."
Jody shrugs again. "Don' matter t'me.'
Hoseah nods evenly. "Then if you are interested, after dinner this eve that is where I will be. Probably tomorrow as well if you are busy tonight. After that, however, I am not certain I will be in town."
Jody nods once, brusquely.
Hoseah's own nod is slower, relaxed. "Well, Jody Lukas, I will see you someplace else, perhaps. Or not. Tis up to you." He gives a slight bow and turns to walk away up the street.
Jody calls after him, "You still ain't given me a name."
Hoseah turns, an apologetic expression on his features. "Hoseah. Hoseah Carlton." He gives the slight bow again, and turns once more to proceed along his path.