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[ That is quite a word. Kitty sighs, and says, briskly: ]

Well - Magic's different here. So maybe knowing your name doesn't matter for that. And the one one who knows magic like we've got back home is Mandrake, which is easy enough to take care of if necessary.

[A red hot flare of temper, the unintelligible frustration turning like a hot knife toward the the thought of Nathaniel. Mandrake! Even that useless idiot had possessed the good sense to hold on to his ridiculous chosen name, and here he was - Bartimaeus of Uruk, Sakhr al-Jinni of Al-Arish, N'gorso the Mighty, Wakonda of the Algonquin - with centuries of possessing nothing but his name being too slavishly habitual to recognize an opportunity when it was dangled in front of his face.

He's really cocked it up this time, hasn't he?]

Easy! Now you're just being cruel on purpose! I'll have you know that shard in my hand or no, I could wring the neck of anything that came after him. I won't take being insulted like this, Miss Jones.

Why - certainly you could. But why would you?

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'd love nothing more than for someone to push that one down a convenient stairwell. Only Mandrake's always been rather good at working some protection clause into his summons. But by all means - you're welcome to put banana peels in his doorway. Maybe he'll step on one while half asleep some morning and break his neck falling.

[My, he really is in a temper.]

Edited 2019-03-21 17:20 (UTC)

Hold on.

[ Incredulity creeps into her voice. ]

You mean to say that he's made a slave of you here?

You say that as if anyone is any different here.

But - he hasn't any right to do it here. He hasn't any right to do it there, but he especially hasn't any right to do it here. He - I -

[ She feels a surge of fury. ]

I ought to cut his rat throat.

[A snort that sounds like 'Oh please.']

Don't laugh! What, you think I can't?

I would never doubt a human's ability to find a bloodthirsty solution to a problem.

[ A noise of outrage. ]

I'd be doing it for you, you know. Don't you want to be free?

You'd be doing it for the satisfaction of being more right than Mandrake. There's a difference.

[ A noise of incredulity: ]

No, I wouldn't! Especially since I'm already more right than Mandrake!

[He makes a short, sharp noise.]

Oh really? Well isn't that nice. I suppose then that after you've finished with him, I can give you a nice list of all the other throats I'd like slashing then, eh?

I -

[ She flushes. She wasn't expecting him to suddenly start sobbing with gratitude at her or anything, but - she definitely wasn't expecting this. Him to insult her. ]

It's - It's not about slashing them because you want them slashed. It's about - ensuring the end to your enslavement.

I don't know if you've noticed, but we've arrived in a place even less habitable for me than the one we came from. Which, I must say, is quite the surprise. If you mean to protect my liberty, Miss Jones, you'd better start doing your press ups now. Your knife arm's going to get tired.

Well - Don't you want me to at least try?

I want you to try being less eager about stooping to his level.

[ That does give her pause. Is that what she's doing? Stooping to his level? Not really, she thinks at once; Mandrake would never have the stomach to cut someone's throat personally. Kitty...Well, after six-odd months here in Thedas, it...honestly doesn't seem so difficult. Is that wicked? The fact that a demon is scolding her for her morals sends an odd, squirming discomfort up her spine.

So, defensively: ]

Why d'you stick up for him?

Edited 2019-03-23 02:02 (UTC)

[Oh, that does it.]

Stick up for-- you think this is me sticking up for him?!

[It suddenly occurs to him where he is and what he's doing - standing on the edge of a rooftop, one foot jammed against a stone protrusion to keep his balance so he can linger there while arguing with her when he should have been gone minutes ago. There is no conceivable reason at all for him to be here and snipping back and forth with her when he could be wearing the guise of something feathered and vindictively beautiful and using the rush of wind to drown out the sound of her entirely.

What on earth is he doing?]

I'm putting you in my pocket now, Kitty.

[ Snappishly: ]

Why, 'cause you can't think up a good answer?

[Just as sharp right back:]

Because for someone supposedly so interested in my freedom, you sure act as if you're entitled to my conversation.

[ UGH. ]

Oh, sorry, is talking something that's oppressive to you, now? 'Cause you sure do a lot of it, if so.

[A blustering noise. A sharp scoff. A witheringly witty retort:]

Wouldn't you like to know!

[Alright sure, it's not the sharpest he's ever been but-- but why do you keep doing this, Bartimaeus?! Honestly! You'd think he was under some charge to sit there and listen to her talk for all that he's let her prattle on! He shakes himself. Firmly:]

Goodbye, Kitty.

Enjoy licking Mandrake's boots, Bartimaeus.

(no subject)

reshapes - 2019-03-23 15:23 (UTC) - Expand