#20231019

Date posted: 2023/10/19 & 2023/10/20 Link: https://x.com/KDEdwards_NC/status/1715068841141907868 & https://twitter.com/KDEdwards_NC/status/1715175243168334020 Additional comments by K.D.: #Tarotsequencefriday Tomorrow will be busy, so here's a mini-scene from Rune and Brand's early days that I wrote at lunch. Ignore my typos! Update: If I were to keep writing this, this would come next.... Snippet:

Early Adventures of Rune & Brand A Short, Short Story

I wasn't even a minute late for the meeting with Mayan. I actually showed up seven seconds early. Brand, who wasn't taciturn on the best of days, had already promised me a week of all-day sparring lessons if I made him look bad in front of Mayan. "Did you read the folder," he said immediately. "I skimmed it," I said. "You're a fucking liar, so we're sparring all afternoon," he said. He ripped the folder out of my hands and then immediately shoved it back into them. "That. Read that now." So I did. We were only five years into our decade-long deal with Lord Tower, living in rooms out of the Pac Bell and learning about the various arms of the Dagger Throne's business. I had a suspicion I was being groomed - though not in a bad way. Today's job was to learn more about a very atypical kind of talent acquisition. "Well, shit," I murmured, barely halfway into the folder. Brand continued to glare at me, only he really wasn't glaring at me at all. The unhappiness vanished from his face as the door handle turned, and Mayan, Lord Tower's Companion and corporate security chief, stepped into the tiny, bare room. There was just a table, four chairs, and a huge two-way mirror on the wall. Or maybe it was just a normal mirror that was made to look like an American police two-way mirror. The Tower enjoyed practical applications of psychology. "Do you understand what you'll be doing?" he said in the professional voice he always used with me. He dropped a lot more f-bombs when neither Lord Tower or I were around. "Just what does Lord Tower expect?" Brand demanded. "Lord Tower doesn't expect. He issues instructions. The Atlantean wo is about to enter is a rare resource - it's taken us over eighty years to find him. We want him off the streets, and on our payroll." "Okay, then," Brand said, and didn't stop staring at Mayan. "Let's get him off the street." He opened the file and pointed to a page he'd dog-eared. "This is his moniker?" "Which is never, ever used to his face, correct," Mayan said. "He prefers Lord Kalorsky, or, if you must, Toxin." "Okay, then," Brand repeated. "You'll run the interview," Mayan said. "Am I allowed to speak?" I asked. It was a bit of a joke, but the way Mayan hesitated had me squaring my shoulders. "Of course," he said. "This is as much learning for you as Brand."

Ten minutes later, Mayan showed Kalorsky into the room, then left us alone. Or maybe he retreated behind the mirror. Kalorsky was unassuming. Average height, face, coloring, clothing. It was all a calculation - the disguise of a killer. "Thanks for seeing us today, Bad Plant," Brand said. Kalorsky stiffened in his seat. "Excuse me?" "Isn't that your nickname?" Brand asked innocently. "Excuse me?" Kalorsky repeated, and leaned into the table with what might have been menace. "I guess it's because of the tatts," Brand said. "No one alive has seen my tattoos," Kalorsky whispered. "No one." "Apparently fucking not, since I'm reading about it right here. You've got tatts of toxic plants all over your body. Aren't most of these holiday plants?" A mottled, meat-colored flush crawled from the man's neck. "The don't even call you The Bad Plant," Brand said. "Just Bad Plant. It sounds a little like they're mocking you, to be honest." "What is this," he hissed. Brand looked at me to make sure he wasn't screwing up alone. I nodded and stepped in so we could screw up the assignment together. "This is what it is," I said. "You've got an impeccably foul resume. Really, really nauseating stuff. The Dagger Throne, in its painfully neutral little heart, agrees that you need to be taken off the street. But they'd rather hire you than bury you. An exclusive deal." "And this is you selling me on it?" "Oh fuck no," Brand said. "I'm hoping you say no. Rune and I will hunt you down and kill you." I added, "We'll probably do it even if the Tower hires you, but we'll have to be a lot more discreet." I held up a hand and made eye contact with the two-way mirror. "We're done here. Brand has knives, you have the paperwork. Bring it in and we'll settle this." Thus ended my short career in the Dagger Throne's HR Office.

Snippet update: