houseofcards_rp | [ota] forging links and making friends

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[ota] forging links and making friends

Frankly, Annie still can't think why she was chosen as an ambassador. Still, she's going to do her duty by it, because David and Katya wouldn't pick her for just a prank, right?

Well, maybe they would. But it seems unlikely.

So after an exhausting week and a half of making sure that each and every remaining snake is safely hibernating and out until spring, Annie's cleaning herself up, dressing herself in clothes relatively smarter than her usual attire (begging a skirt from a friend in the process), leaving a note in the Royals' offices officially accepting the appointment, and heading out to Heart Castle to present herself. Hopefully it will go well.

[ooc: catch her anywhere along the way.]

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Johnny is not an ambassador. But...Court Musician counts for something, right?

Well, maybe not.

And at the moment, he's just being nosy.

"Hey, you're the one with the snakes, right?"

"Sure. Didn't bring one today, though. Why d'you ask?" She can wrangle directions out of this one, she expects.

"Just making sure I was right," he grins. "What brings you over this way?"

"I'm looking for a Face Card. Couldn't point me to one, maybe? Whoever's closest." She could probably get along with Judith, even Blythe. Hopefully Athena would have mellowed a bit.

"Oh. Uhm." Johnny nodded toward the wing where the Face card offices could be found. "Down that way. You'll probably want to talk to Blythe."

Judith had been rather busy, between Tristan and Ceiro, lately.

"Blythe, right. Thanks." Before going, she adds, "It's Annie, by the way. If I'm coming here more often 'the one with the snakes' gets t'be a bit of a mouthful."

He smiles, "I'm Johnny. S'nice to meet you, Annie."

But hey, at least you're infamous, Annie!

Not that hard in a semi-city of a few thousand people, really.

She tosses him a casual salute. "See ya, Johnny."

Jordan's hobbling down the hall when he sees Annie, and by this time the lineface has less to do with Meghana - though still a lot to do with Meghana - and more to do with the fact that crutches are the bane of his existance...

For the next seven weeks.

"Hey," he manages, though. "You look...a touch more muted than usual." Is that skirt actually in a neutral?

The crutches startle her- she'd heard through the grapevine, of course, but she hadn't quite set it together with her mind's image of Jordan yet. "Uh... yeah. I figured, you know, my usual's not so good for talking to a Queen." Beat. "Or an Ace. Or a Jack. Whichever's fine, right?" She smooths her skirt nervously. "I'm the Spade ambassador for Hearts now, y'see."

He's tempted to limp without it, but he's heard in no uncertain terms from two medical professionals that he should not do that unless he also wants to limp for the rest of his life. So here we are.

"Ah, I see." His smile is somewhat amused. "Well, I imagine Blythe is probably the easiest to find. She usually is." In any case, he doubts it matters which. The Hearts aren't all that much for formality, or stringently defined roles. They wouldn't be managing without a King if they were.

"Right. Gotcha. What's she like? You challenged her before, right?" That's about all she knows about Blythe Merrick, save for the bit about Ace. And maybe the age bit. That sticks out too.

"She's...nice." Really, it's the best way to describe her. "Smart, of course, and she can manage to get things done. We actually made friends after my challenge." A little before, technically, since they'd made that scheme. "Which, you know, doesn't happen that much, even over here."

"Funny, I figured you had a whole line of people queuing up to be your buddy," she deadpans. "Guess I can expect the same reception, huh? Or is that up in the air?"

"Ha ha ha," he deadpans right back, before shrugging. "I doubt she'll be anything less than friendly, honestly. She has no reason to be."

"Gotcha. Heart through and through, then." The nerves ease up a bit, though she's still fiddling with her hair. She knows that Blythe is small, unlike the other Aces- except Eileen, but she only half-counts- but the Ace of Hearts is probably just as intimidating if she puts her mind to it. Best stop thinking too much.

"So I... heard you got into an accident with a tree and a hooker. Which bit's true?" Okay, no one mentioned a hooker. She just threw that in to see his face.

He's about to assure her that Blythe Merrick very rarely bites, and then she mentions the accident, and a face is made. "Just the tree part...are people seriously claiming I picked up a hooker in the Middle of Nowhere part of the Deck, because I don't think the traffic would make for good business. Half the vehicles on the road are tractors."

She can't help cracking up. Hook, line and sinker. "Even tractors have a big enough surface. Okay, probably not comfortable, but big enough. But nah, nobody's saying that. Your expression was hilarious."

You're mean, Annie Riordan. See this put-upon sigh? "Anyway, just me, a wet road, a Mustang, and a tree. The Mustang got the worst of it."

At least she backs off when she ought to. "I bet your leg still hurts worse than your wallet. How long are you gonna be on those for?"

It's what makes her a smart woman, really. "Six or seven weeks, conservatively. It might be a little less." But he wasn't holding his breath. "I walked on it like an idiot."

She winces in sympathy, looking down at his leg again. "Yeowch. But you were halfway to the boonies anyway, right? Wasn't anyone around to stop and help."

"Yeah, it's mostly farms out that way. I had to walk a ways before I found someone who could haul the car in." Of course, he could have called, but who does that?

Lazy people, is who. Obviously. "This must be like the icing on a shit cake, or something. We've gotta do something to cheer you up, Jordan."

Because really, one's girlfriend up and leaving without any note that she's heard of and being stuck with crutches? Bad luck there.

"I'm up for any ideas that don't have me hobbling past Dr. James' clinic, or he'll come out and scowl at me for not sitting at home with my foot up." There'd been a note, of course. It hadn't made it much better.

"Maybe I should reopen the speakeasy in my rooms and just sit back bartending."

"You'd have to arrange everything so it's within your reach," she says sensibly. "It'd be a good cover, though; everyone visiting'd be your well-wishers. Of course, that wouldn't do much for your day job."

"The question is," Jordan says, musingly, "would I get a report on my desk about a disturbance in my own apartment?" Because that?

That would be kind of funny, actually.

"If your neighbours don't know by now who lives next to them, you probably oughta shove it in the bin." This is clearly the best course of action.

Also clearly why Annie will never be a Ten.

"Either that or it would be a passive-aggressive way of telling me to cut it the hell out." And if you don't think Hearts are capable of passive-aggression.

Well.

You'd be wrong on that one.

Passive-aggression is surely the only form of aggression Hearts are capable of. Surely.

"Or they're just staying out of your way for fear of getting whacked by a crutch. It's possible."

"It's probable." Especially considering the state of the Novak in the Hearts. The theory with stopping Laureline would that it would rehabilitate their image in their Suit - Jordan wasn't so sure, lately, that it was really working. But then again, did it really matter? He wasn't sure it did. "I won't say I haven't thought about it."

"The more you think about doing something, the likelier it is you'll do it, which I doubt'd help your rep." She shrugs. Not that she really thought Jordan or Hadyn's reputations would ever get to the level of universally loved. "Maybe just stick to the drinking and mixing of."

"Probably so." And just as probably, there was no real rehabbing of his and Hadyn's reputation. Well, mostly his, really. "It might be the best PR, not that that's my area."

"Even if it's not your area, you gotta take it a little into consideration, right?" She cocks her head. "Like, high rank, high visibility? Something like that."

"Now you sound like me." He smirks a little. "Except I usually have to tell Hadyn that." Though not lately. Lately he'd been leaving Hadyn alone with that kind of thing.

Her reaction to being told that is rather comical. Admittedly, she's exaggerating somewhat. "No. Should I stay away from Hadyn now? Will that help? If I don't say the same thing, I won't continue the transformation? Because as much as I like you, I don't wanna be you."

"I think if you just encourage him to do things like do cartwheels down the hall of Spade Castle," Jordan says, "you'll pretty much save yourself from ever being me."

"Noted," she grins, saluting him. "Pretty much stick to bein' myself that way."

When she hears the knock on her office door, Blythe will call out "Come in!". As Annie steps in, Blythe will retrieve a new blue file folder from her second drawer, standing up to greet the woman. "Blythe Merrick - it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Annie Riordan, Five of Spades," she says, barely biting back a 'ma'am'. That feels weird addressing someone her age. "I've come to present myself- I'm the new Spade ambassador." She holds out her hand to shake.

"Welcome to the Hearts, Annie." Blythe grins, waving at one of the fluffy white armchairs in front of her desk. "Here, take a seat. Make yourself comfortable." The Ace slips out from behind her desk to take a seat on the chair opposite the other woman. "To start off, ah... This might sound weird, but who do you know well in this Suit?"

She settles into the chair, smoothing nervously at her skirt. The fluffiness at least goes some way to calming her down- Hearts clearly operated on a much less formal scale. Phew. "Um. The Novaks, 'cause I grew up with them. Greylan, who works in the kitchens; I don't know his last name. A couple of kids, Yulia Clayton and Nazariy Wyght- they come and help me out with my snakes sometimes, because they want their own but they're not allowed." She shrugs. "And Athena, but I wouldn't say I know her well."

"Alright. That's a good start. Now, before I start - did you have any specific ideas of things you'd like to accomplish as ambassador? I'd love to hear your thoughts." Blythe quickly takes a pocket notebook from her desk, perching it on her leg.

"Well, I'd like to start by making sure that Hearts can feel free to come and go at our castle. Within reason, a'course, the public areas and where they're invited by us. I heard that even though, you know, that thing with Sandy and Hadyn and Amy was resolved months ago, a lot of Hearts still feel it's better not to visit us."

She twiddles her thumbs a bit. "And uh, I'm still feeling this out so forgive me if I phrase this weirdly, but there are a lot of lower Spades who kind of think the Hearts are weak. I mean, not that we don't generally think that already, y'know, the usual stereotyping- but you guys still don't have a King, and there's your Jack. There's a lot of bad feelings still about how she left us. I'd like to try changing that. I mean, obviously I can't do anything about how you choose your Face Cards, but I really think that together we can work on changing that, that perception."

"No, don't worry. You're phrasing it perfectly well. That's an issue I have too, and I really want to change that perception as well." She hesitates, glancing down at her notebook as she allows herself a moment of guilt for the lack of a King before looking back up at Annie. "If we could work together on that, I'd really like it. In return, we can also try to discourage any prejudices we have against the Spades."

"Like we're generally violent assholes who take any opportunity to bully?" Annie grins: clearly not the picture of a stereotypical Spade. "That'd be fantastic, your Aceness."

"I highly doubt that, Annie. You've been nothing but kind." Blythe laughs back, scribbling Annie's name down on a file folder. "I'm glad we agree, though. This should be a very profitable partnership."

"You and me both, Blythe," she answers warmly.

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[ota] forging links and making friends

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