houseofcards_rp | [ota] the crown weighs on me

He hadn't expected some things when he took up the rank of King. And frankly all he could do is stare at the papers on his desk as if they were not there. He'd had a visit from his lovely Grandmother earlier that day, half-listened to her opinions on who he should name Ace in place of Julien, and half-listened to her congratulate him on his decision to remove the 'troublesome' factor. It was always a loving conversation with Vivienne Bernard, oh yes.

He and Michael had been avoiding each other rather well, all things considered. And for a man Clive owed an apology to, the King found himself completely devoid of words.

Instead he felt...he felt as if everyone was watching him with hungry eyes. Half to win his favor, the other half waiting for a sign of weakness before ripping him apart. Heh, maybe he was starting to under David a little too much. Paranoia was starting to creep into everything. And David was another thing that worried him, on top of it. He'd always respected the man, but there was certainly going to bad blood there- even if it wasn't outwardly admitted to.

Reaching out to the side, he picked up his glass of scotch and took a sip of it before leaning back in his chair. He hardly noticed when there was a knock on his door.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"They aren't finished," he said after a moment, setting his glass down slowly before glancing up at Jordan for a moment. "I'll send them down later." Which was not so promising as the later was left open ended.

"You don't have to stand there looking at me like that."

"I can sit instead," Jordan said. Really, the reports were just an excuse anyway, and he slips into one of the chairs across from Clive's desk, crossing his legs at the ankle.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Or just stare into the whiskey.

"Not really," he said, reaching out to poor himself another glass before pouring one for Jordan as well. His cousin didn't seem too likely to be leaving any time soon.

"Just the usual, nothing to worry over."

This, he thought as he took the glass, sounded somewhat familiar. Like a conversation he and Clive had had last fall, right after Mother had been banished, and his cousin hadn't left him alone, then.

He just eyed him, for a moment, before he took a drink of whiskey.

"Are you going to use the one year between us as an excuse to feed me a line of bullshit?"

"I thought I would use my rank," he said, glancing up at Jordan for a moment as he fell silent again. He wasn't really sure why people thought it was necessary for him to discuss things with them- just because he was talented at getting it out of them.

Turnabout was fair play. Either that or it just wasn't healthy to keep everything bottled up inside; probably both, but more the former than the latter. "Novel, Your Majesty," Jordan drawled as he took another drink. "I hear the Joker formerly known as the King of Spades has been making a stir."

"David always seemed to have a knack for making a stir," he said with a sigh as he shock his head and looked up at Jordan with a bland look. "I'm sure he isn't pleased with things, but won't say as much. Have you had a chance to speak with him?" Because that was the real question, wasn't it? What did David really have to say to things?

"It's his special skill, really." And it was no secret that Jordan had never liked the man in the least, so it wasn't much of a surprise that he hadn't sought him out yet.

He would eventually, he just preferred other people to go first, and he shook his head. "No. But Hadyn did, I believe."

"What did they talk about, I wonder." He honestly wasn't sure what went on in that boy's head at times. He tended to just live in a world all his own. And tended to think on his own more and more these days.

"I have no idea. I can ask, but..." It was hard to ask these things without Hadyn giving him a look. He was a Bernard, after all, he knew their tactics. "You know he's working for Blythe now?"

"Does he?" Clive asked, his brows going up for a moment, before knotting a little. That meant Hadyn had given up on the theater...did it not? How strange. He never expected that to ever really happen. "Why the sudden change?"

Jordan tilted his head to one side and shrugged. "He's never really loved the theatre, you know." They both had just done what Laureline told them they should, really. "Blythe asked him; I wouldn't be surprised if Elisha suggested it to her, honestly."

He paused a beat. "It decreases the chance that he'll ever come back here, but it might be a good thing, for one of our family to have her ear."

"And what, precisely, do the Hearts give us?" Though he couldn't really argue with it. Hadyn had a lot more influence in the Heart's than Jordan ever had, which seemed odd when looking in at the scene. There was a clear sort of discontent with things that Hadyn carried in his shoulders, but there was an ease in which in moved about to speak to others.

"The ear of a King and the ear of an Ace- and yet he's the one our family looks at as though he had the plague." It was almost laughable, really. Clive night be King, but as far as connections went? Hadyn beat him out by leaps and bounds.

"Nothing right now," Jordan acknowledges with a shrug, "but you never know about later on." They didn't have the link of family between the Suits anymore, after all.

"Well, it's Grandmother," he drawled, leaning back with his whiskey. "You and I both know that if it's not connections she approves of, they're bad connections. But times are changing. Only half of the Kings are Deck-born now." You couldn't hold on to the old-family snobbery forever.

"And what about you? Blythe, I believe you like well enough...but Elisha? Do you really approve of that, or do you just stay silent out of lack of fight or protest?" Hadyn wasn't the easiest sibling to live with, Clive imagined.

"It doesn't matter, anyway. If Hadyn can't be controlled by the family, whatever his connections might be prove to be moot. I imagine you prefer it that way, in reality."

He shrugs. "He's an ass," he says bluntly enough. "But that seems to be what Hadyn's into, given his other close relationships." He's thinking Julien more than Sieben, really, though they both qualify.

"Perhaps," he said, though, with a raised eyebrow. "Do you plan to groom Helena into a pawn sometime soon?" He doubted it, but he could be wrong. Clive and Helena and Jeremy hadn't grown up constantly being pawns, after all.

"No. But it isn't the concern here." He snapped, regarding his own siblings. Shaking his head he pushed out of the chair he sat in and cleared his throat.

"We'll make the best of things should the need arise. Until then...." Well, he'd sit alone with his scotch.

And there's the dismissal, Jordan thought, and tossed back the rest of his scotch before standing up.

"Call me when the reports are ready," he said as he set it on the sideboard, glancing around at the bright orange walls. But no comment. "Archiving is my life again, you know."

[ota] the crown weighs on me

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject