[OTA] One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

[karatofquality]

Within the last several weeks, a lot had happened. People who were careful to keep their King in the loop were reporting the return of the last King of Spades, and monitoring his activities so that the Diamond Face Cards could be prepared for further upset.

Silas was less concerned with that than with the failings within his own Suit. He'd started to notice the strain between Säde and Avery even more, recently, and things weren't too much better between her and Cadogan. It was absolutely unacceptable.

But before he could talk to his Queen about it, he needed full information from his Ace and his Jack. There was enough unrest already as a direct result of Säde's uncontrolled actions, for which she had not yet truly answered.

All in due time.

He needed to talk to others, first.

Comments

[denythyfather]

"... why did you call me here, your Majesty?" Adrien shifts from one foot to the other, glancing around his office. It had... been a while since he visited, yes. But he had been occupied with other things recently. Lots of other things.

[thecutdiamond]

But surely he could take time from business to have a cup of tea with a friend, right? Or at least relax a little while discussing business and having a cup of tea with a friend.

Especially since said friend is standing at his doorway using only a cane to stay up and a somewhat sheepish looking Two is already holding the tray.

"Do you have a little time, Your Majesty?"

Clearly the answer is yes, yes?

[holdsmyheart]

"You look like a man deep in thought," Theo drawled from the Diamond King's office door, where he leaned nonchalantly against the jamb. "Too busy for a bit of chitchat?" Read: outside thoughts and hopefully a bit of advice.

[diemwnt]

There are a lot of things Cadogan is more than happy to talk about. There's updates from the Outposts--his project from time immemorial. There's updates on the less than savoury nature of the Twos he'd been asked to keep a pulse on. There's updates on the cross-Suit translations that have been beginning to fit more properly into place.

He's not particularly excited about the idea of talking about Säde. The tense peace between them is surely enough. The fact she went off with Julien and not Avery is surely progress.

But, you know. It's Silas' office. Silas' meeting. And he's got a hip flask more than ready if the conversation needs to go where he's afraid it will go.

[uncutclarity]

She hadn't spoken to Silas about Säde; she generally made a policy of not doing so, because it didn't do much good as a rule. The facts were that the Queen didn't like the Ace and the Ace didn't much like the Queen, either, and as much as it had bewildered and confused her when she'd been Jack, by now?

Status quo.

She has a smile for Silas, though, as she lightly knocks on his office door. "Pip said you wanted to see me?"

[onlytolerable]

Sophie had a million and one things to do, forty-six people to ride herd on and twenty-seven documents that wanted to crumble into bits. In short, she had ninety-nine problems and a king was one, at least if he took her away from the library at this time.

In fairness to Silas, anyone who took her away from her work just now would be counted as one more impediment.

But he's the king and she's Diamond through-and-through, so she stops what she's doing to report to his office, though in her distraction she forgets to remove her white cotton gloves.

"You wanted to see me, Your Majesty?"

[ishineon]

She comes by late in the day when she's summoned, being certain to have tea sent just ahead of her. There's been a lot of time spent thinking over the past couple of weeks. She's fairly certain she can guess what a large part of this discussion will be about.

"Silas."