rainbowlounge | Spring RP: The Hennessy Home

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roleplay: open

Spring RP: The Hennessy Home

The house sits on a bluff above the sea, with a winding path down to a sandy beach leading away from the yard. It is three stories high, stucco and terracotta, and would look forbiddingly expensive were it not for the worn tire swing hanging from a tree and the flip-flops left strewn around the outdoor pool.

Inside, the house looks much the same--expensive but lived-in. A grand piano, clearly used, dominates one room. Another room has couches and chairs neatly arranged like a museum, with beat-up books and magazines filling its shelves and cupboards. It is light and airy, with huge windows, a well-stocked kitchen, and first-rate entertainment systems.

The first and second floors seem to be generalized living spaces, with the bedrooms on the third floor. The master bedroom is the only exception, and the only one that still seems in use. Multiple other rooms, especially on the third floor, look dusty and unused.

((welcome to the RP, writers! Let the games begin.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Contracts," Miranda said, and wondered whether to ask about the family. Probably not, she decided, unless this other was getting uncomfortably close to a sore spot of her own. "Unfortunately, usually corporate clients."

Lux nodded. "Mariko, my friend, used to work for a diplomat. She now works for a corporation. I know she vastly preferred the first job." Of course, then she saw something she shouldn't have and I had to take it all away from her. I wonder which she blames me more for--the people I killed, or the future I warped?

"Corporations seem to think they're above the law," Miranda said. "At least tomorrow I get to work with a nonprofit. They're much more reasonable, generally speaking."

And of course this particular nonprofit was run by Peter Edleson, whose crooked smile she was quite looking forward to seeing again. Her expression softened just a bit.

"That's a good way of putting it," Lux mused. Certainly even the better employees of Red Sky fell into that category, and when she considered the scientist who had been working with her nephew...at least Mariko hadn't been infected by that sort of viewpoint.

Of course, there were some--many--laws that were beneath most people, but Lux knew full well those weren't the kind that the human was talking about. "What does the nonprofit you're working with do?"

"They help the less fortunate acquire legal aid," Miranda replied, aware that she was parroting the website and not caring too much. "Not only for criminal trials, but for civil proceedings and suits as well. They're being sued right now, which is why they're coming to us, but we may partner with them in the future if we prove compatible."

Lux nodded. "A useful service. Especially since, in my admittedly limited experience, most similar non-profits focus on the criminal and don't do enough for the civil."

"Very useful, when they aren't getting sued." Volunteers. Miranda was glad that her firm only used paid interns, which meant they had to sign fairly stringent contracts. "But we should be able to solve that particular problem."

"Good luck with that," Lux said, then shook her head. "Courts are messy, I have no idea how people manage to deal with them on a regular basis." Of course, she might have a different opinion had she actually been granted the courtesy of a trial, after she lost the war, but...well, pondering that wouldn't help her now.

Miranda laughed at that, and was a little surprised at herself. "Generally, we delegate. There are eleven fully qualified associates who work directly with me, and there's another thirty-two in the firm as a whole."

"Always nice to be able to delegate," Lux said, smiling. Idly, she wondered, "Do you have specific people for specific tasks, or do you vary the assignments at all?" Lux still--and would always--firmly believe the latter method was generally the best, but...well. Her entire species was built on fairly strict compartmentalization of responsibilities. Those she'd manage to persuade to fight for her...well, they'd all done a little of everything. Perhaps they simply couldn't handle that, and that was why she'd lost.

"Specific people have specific areas of law that they practice," Miranda said, and shrugged. "I try not to keep people doing exactly the same tasks all the time; they get bored and careless."

She nodded. "Makes sense." Perhaps that would be the way to reshape things, when she won the second war. If I win, she reminded herself. She'd been pulled back into things too early, and was far too attached to Mariko for her own good. And then there was what she'd read in his head... "Keep people relatively close to their comfort zones, where their skills are, but with enough leeway that they don't become..." She trailed off, before she could pick a word that would be far too loaded for the human's relatively innocuous context.

Edited 2014-05-24 22:09 (UTC)

Miranda raised an eyebrow, and when the other didn't continue, prompted, "So they don't become...?"

Damn it. "...I'm not actually sure what the word I want there is," she said, hoping that would be enough of an answer that the human would stop pushing.

"You seemed sure enough when you were talking," Miranda said, as mildly as she could. There was something here, some sort of answer that would explain everything about this other person, but... well, it only mattered if she could get to it.

Damn it, damn it, damn it. Of course she'd managed to find a sharp-eyed, sharp-eared human to stumble in front of. She sighed, her ever-wounded wings shivering at her back--at least those were easy to hide from human sight--and shook her head. Maybe she could still walk this back. "Well, I was going to say 'depersonalized,' but that's a bit melodramatic, I think."

"Well," Miranda said, and then, "A bit, I suppose, but it makes sense. There's this saying, cogs in a corporate machine; you don't ever want people working with you to feel as if they are that. It significantly decreases their investment in your success." She shrugged. "I try to be sure everyone has a stake."

Oh, good, the human had accepted that. "I like your phrasing better. And I'm glad you make efforts to avoid it."

She shrugged again. "Why not? It costs me very little and benefits me considerably more."

Lux nodded. "You're right, of course. I'm used to people who are...more shortsighted about such things."

"That's part of why I don't like working with corporations," Miranda said dryly. "So often they've forgotten the basic principle that making their workers happy makes them money."

And when it's about more than money, when it's about every fundamental function of your society, it gets even worse. She smiled wryly. "I think I've been spending too much time with Mariko's employers lately. It's making me jaded. More so than usual, anyway."

"It isn't cynicism if you're correct," Miranda replied, sing-song. She'd said this to her siblings so many times...

Lux laughed a little. "True, true. Still, it is nice to find out that not everyone is like that. Sometimes it's hard to remember--I've never quite been a glass-half-full sort of being." That had always been Gabriel, even in the darkest of times during the civil war.

Sort of being? Interesting. Miranda had never... well, that was irrelevant, except insofar as it was another clue to this person. "I suppose. My sister isn't, but then my brother and I work very hard to ensure she can remain idealistic."

Not that Jack was particularly cynical himself-- a realist, perhaps.

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