houseofcards_rp | [ota] let me count the ways....

And that was a rare sight, Elisha thought; Clive, much like his predecessor, was given to suits, at least during working hours. Of course, it was Sunday, but it wasn't as if any hours weren't working hours for them, really.

The difference with Elisha was he pretty much never bothered to wear a suit.

"Clive," he said. His slight smile betrayed nothing - not even the report he'd had about a certain incident in Romania, suspiciously timed during Victor Fox's last short trip off-Deck. "I don't think I've seen you outside your office or one of the dinners in at least three months." And Bernard dinners. Well. Just another working occasion, really.

Family dinners had been the last thing on his mind, really. Particularly when he thought there was more important issues to face off with. Still, he looked up his name and sighed a little as he stopped.

"Elisha, mm..." He had to laugh a little before shaking his head. "It has been a bit of an issue with finding the time, honestly."

The general instability had given him ready-made excuses to beg off himself, though he'd only done it once or twice. Elisha took a perverse pleasure in blandly bantering with Vivienne Bernard whenever she thought she could get the best of him.

You had to take your joys in life where you could, really.

"I can't imagine why," he said dryly as he slipped his hands into his pockets. "I've been having to fill my days with spa trips just to break up the monotony."

"That would be fun," he said with a laugh before he shook his head and smiled. "I, uh...did want to extend some apologies your way, however. For the fun of dinners with my grandmother, and without having someone sane to share the evening ordeals with. However, I might still find reasons to be too busy all the same."

"I have no idea what you mean," Elisha said. "Vivienne's never not utterly charming." He shrugged, though, looking at the path ahead. "Difficult family functions aren't entirely unique to the Deck. I'm fairly practiced at this point in my life."

He smirked a bit, ducking his head. "Until you receive an unavoidable summons?"

"The most charming woman every to exist, my grandmother." Clive intoned before he smiled and chuckled a little. "All the same, I do try to avoid listening to her too much. If she had her way one of my cousins would be Ace by now." Well, perhaps. He'd had half a mind to make Helena Ace just to be done with it, but Katya wouldn't have liked the idea most likely.

"Until I find an Ace, rather, I think I'll find an excuse to dodge."

Vivienne struck Elisha as the type of woman who would like to stock all the Face positions with Bernards, if she could do it. Elisha was too fond of Katya to care for that particular idea, really.

"Being short a Face is a good excuse for a lot of things," Elisha said, chuckling a little. "Though I'm finally getting comments about whether we're ever getting a Queen."

"Well, one does have to wonder about that. Are you? I can assure you that nothing is better than a great Queen. And no...you can't have Katya." He grinned though.

"How are things with Hadyn? For a man that is supposed to be an ambassador to my suit from his...i so rarely get the chance to see him."

There were not, really, that many suitable candidates. Elani wasn't ready for it, and even if he picked her, he'd been without a Jack then. He'd mostly been joking about Briony, but truthfully - there weren't many high-ranking female Clubs. Carmella had been perfect, honestly, and was harder to replace than Argine had been. "Are you sure?" He asked. "She'd make an excellent Club. I could bribe her with hirolka."

It was an idea, at least.

"Oh, he's doing well. He's working for Blythe now, so not so much time spent at the theatre." He even managed to say that entirely neutrally, without any hint of amusement at Henry's expense. "I think he and Jordan have lunch every day. Maybe you should join them once. As a...surprise."

"Maybe I will. So hard to catch people these days, it seems." He chuckled shook his head. "I'm glad to know he's well, though. That one is quite the handful...and hitting his teenage rebellion late."

But Elisha probably already know that.

"Anyway, don't let keep you. I have....amends to make, I'm afraid."

Oh, he was well aware - but Hadyn had never hit it that badly, really. Not compared to Elisha, at least.

"Good luck with it," he said sincerely. "I'll have to stop by sometime when we're not both going insane." If such a time ever actually existed.

"Thanks, in that case, God I hope to see you around soon." Clive said with a laugh before he waved his goodbyes to Elisha. Ah, on to less fun conversations now.

If he was still bothered by their last parting, it didn't show. In fact nothing really showed other than the surprise at bumping into Clive close to his apartment as he was on his way to the Castle, dressed down until he could almost blend in with the townsfolk.

"...am I in trouble?"

"Uh....No." He said, shaking his head slowly as he took a deep breath and looked down. "I just, I actually came to say I owe you an apologize. I....had no right to say the things I said the last time we spoke. And I am sorry."

Even if it only made him slightly more paranoid than he ever had been as a nine.

Michael quirked an eyebrow. An apology from the King of Spades? His predecessors would be rolling in their graves.

"Alright," he said with a small shrug and a smile. What else was he supposed to say? Make light of it all with a joke?

"I suppose you still want to know about Julien and I. Or have you already heard from someone who'd heard from someone else?"

It was not something that happened often perhaps, but Clive believed in admitting when one was wrong. King or not. Even if it made him less of a King.

And he honestly didn't expect much more than what he got from Michael, nodding a little before he hesitated. For a moment he thought it was a joke.

"Uh, no. Contrary to what some people think, gossip doesn't really wander into my offices that often."

Less of a king, more of a man. Not a trade-up most kings would make, but it was not a bad choice.

"No. We seem to be lacking a water cooler outside your office to rally around." Not that the boys and girls managing the Suit's finances tended to gossip around the water cooler anyway, but it was worth a shot.

Michael started walking towards the Castle, half-expecting that the young king would follow. He looked so out of place here. So they passed the time walking by telling a story from the beginning and arriving to the answer Clive is looking for in a less direct way.

"When I left the Deck I had nothing. I was raised by servants and butlers. I had no idea what the world or the people Outside would be like. I was 18 when I met a girl and uh... we stayed together for three years. One day she tells me she's pregnant. The next day I'm in a dark room being questioned by the police for sexually assaulting a rich man's daughter." With his hands in his pockets, Michael flashed a lopsided grin at Clive and then shrugged.

"I couldn't even tell them my real name, you know, or where I was from. But I would have kept and raised him Outside if I'd been given a chance." The Spades had been the last place on Earth Michael would have wanted to raise a child.

"Instead they take my boy and ship him off to the other half of the world. He probably got hold of a knife before a crayon, and... now we have a problem child to deal with." He pulled one hand out of his pocket and rubbed the stubble along his jawline absently. It was easy to tell Clive these things. So much easier than facing Julien and admitting that he was young, naive and stupid, and that he was hurting 35 years down the road more than Julien could ever understand, seeing the consequences his own failures had had on his son.

"It's not that I don't trust you. I just wasn't ready to admit that I've made mistakes I can't fix."

Clive wasn't sure where this confession was supposed to be going as he listened, hands stuffed in his pockets as he watched Michael and listened.

"Everyone makes mistakes," he said after a moment, the bulb starting to slowly go off as he started putting it all together. "I....really am sorry, Michael. About everything. I'm just so incredibly in over my head it seems, and while that isn't an excuse- I suppose it is just more stress." He paused again, though, this time stopping on the sidewalk as well.

"But, uh..." He started, and then hesitated. "And please, do not take this the wrong way, but maybe you made a mistake? However, the choices Julien had made are his own. He chose to take his experiences and become the man he is, and continues to...act on impulse. That is not...your mistake."

Michael's smile widened and he shook his head and shrugged. What was the use in apologising? This is how it is.

Anyway the damage had been done. Julien's mother was dead now. Why he'd been given up didn't really matter in light of the man he's become.

"He wasn't given a choice." Michael had a choice. He could have faced his demons and come back for the hour he needed to take millions with him back Outside, then marry a woman he thought he loved, adopt Julien back and it would have all worked out. They might not have been happy, but it could have worked.

"Traumatic experiences don't give us options for how we turn out. You think you're giving him a choice now, but he's not going to change because we want him to. He will only change because he wants Ace."

"Surely there is more to a mind than traumatic experiences or loving homes." He said, almost hoping there was more to it. If there wasn't, he'd be left to consider the countless difficulties his family had endured and forced to write them all off as loons. He rather liked some of them too much for that, like Jordan.

"He cannot be Ace," Clive said after a moment, shaking his head firmly. "All the good a man does, can be undone with one mistake. But if we hold the lowest cards accountable, the same must be expected of the higher numbers. Even the faces. I wouldn't expect less, even if I were the one to commit the act."

"I wouldn't know." He knows he's been forever changed, forever marred by his experiences. Maybe it is not so for everyone, but he isn't optimistic. He's stared madness in the eyes and danced with her across linoleum and marble floors. All he knows is that in everyone's minds there is a little bit of chaos. Some of them just had it more under control than others.

"I doubt he could become an ideal choice for Ace until he stops obsessing over it." As contradictory as that might have sounded. But if he tried anything to become appointed the Ace of Spades once more, he would just revert back to old patterns as soon as he re-attained his title. And this time around, he might be more bitter and resentful. More dangerous, more unpredictable.

"In the meantime you would do well to find an Ace who doesn't easily fall down half a dozen flights of stairs, isn't prone to accidental defenestration and isn't likely to trip and fall onto a bed of knives."

"Easier said than done, Michael." Clive said softly, before scrubbing a hand through his hair. "I've considered Ethan, but before I try to convince Katya, I'm hoping to put his....incident at the Clubs behind us." Even if Kevin seemed to be generally 'okay' with it. It didn't mean everyone else was.

"We've already gone through the other options, and he is...the last of my ideas, it feels." Before he really starts dipping into family, and he wanted to avoid that one so terribly much.

"As much as the young, impressionable Ace of Clubs would benefit from friends who are less adept at killing people, I think it's better for her to spend time with Ethan than Julien." So it was not the best idea for people to visit an Ace in quarantine, but while the implications for an Ace visiting another incarcerated Ace warranted her punishment, it was very heavy-handed for a young lady who just wanted to check in on her friend. They couldn't be faulted for recognising that behind the Ace of Clubs was a girl who's lost too much at too young an age, and shouldn't be made to deal with Suit politics if she only wants to alleviate the burdens in her heart.

"Ace is your decision to make with the Queen. But I will say he is one of David's boys, in a manner of speaking, so... you may have to ask yourself if you can sleep easy at night." An old Spade would have said, if he can't kill David for you, you would be better off appointing a loyal Ace. And indeed he couldn't deny that it was the first thought that came to mind.

"'Trust no one' are words for any Spade to live by. I would hate to see anything happen to you."

Ethan was David's boy, yes...but he had also been a friend to Clive for many years. Foolish or not, Clive had to trust in something and the bond of friendship was the only thing he had at the moment. "My cousin would probably benefit too, but Hadyn stubbornly remains firm in his stance as Julien's friend." At least Eileen was young enough to be influenced, Clive thought.

"Ethan's been a friend for years, I would like to think I could trust him with my life." Even if Michael was right on the 'Trust no one'. Still, he snorted a little and shook his head. "That particular motto is one I hope to change. Even if there are a particular few I wouldn't trust within an inch of my life."

"We would all like to think we could trust each other with much less than our lives." But alas. There'd be far fewer Deckborn Spades around today if the Spades who came before them were a more trusting bunch. The only person they could possibly make a case for was Chives, but even then - what he might know counted for very little in the big picture.

"Perhaps it will change one day. But it will not change tomorrow, or next week, or next month, even if you do have a friend you could trust for Ace." It was not Michael's intention to undermine what non-dysfunctional relationships the Spades might have with each other. But it was better they grappled with the truth now than feel the pains of misplaced trust too little too late.

"No effort, no gain?" Clive asked before he sighed again. He felt as though he side most often these days, even as he worked on trying not to sigh at all. "If I can just start the change, then I will be happy enough, really. And change is good, change is necessary if we are going to keep this whole mess up."

Julien had settled back into a suit, of course, looking every bit the sharp Ace he'd been before. Except for the lack of title, of course.

It was perhaps the simple fact that no new Ace had been chosen that had kept from whispering behind their hands at him overmuch, more than anything else. Perhaps he'd deserved his punishment, but obviously he was also a rather difficult act to follow.

For Julien, it was bitterly gratifying.

But it doesn't mean he won't give Clive, cooly, the respectful bow expected from a Nine to his King when their paths cross. "Your Highness. Out for a walk?"

It wasn't that he'd been avoiding Julien, except for the part where he had been. Shaking his head a little, he even sighed as he came to a halt and looked at the newly minted Nine and forced a smile to his face.

Game on, he thought, before rubbing his nose a little.

"Fresh air does the body good, I am told, Julien. How are you feeling today?"

"I don't believe I could feel any better than I am right now, your Majesty." And that was a true statement, if a tad bit misleading.

"You look as if you've got something on your mind."

Come to think of it, he wasn't certain he'd seen Clive without something on his mind since the other man became King.

"I am glad to hear that, Julien, truly." He even smiled a bit warmer as though to convey just that.

As for his thoughts, well...

"I've merely been contemplating your replacement. It is a careful choice to make, after all."

"I can only imagine the amount of thought that must go into that decision. I do hope you're going to discuss it with her Majesty as well."

He sounds completely sincere and helpful, at least.

Not snarky a bit.

"Oh, I intend to Julien. Don't worry. We do actually make these choices together, as we should."

Such as when they'd demoted Julien, for example. This was how things worked in the new suit order.

"Of course, forgive me for implying otherwise." And his expression turns curious, thoughtful. "Might I ask who it is you're considering?"

Don't worry, Clive. He won't actually do anything to the prospects...it would be too obvious who had done something, after all.

He wasn't planning on telling Julien in either case. Some things just never needed to be spoken, least people get the wrong ideas.

"Several, Julien. Ivona, Helena," he said, before listing off a few other tens. "It would be of particular use if Mr. Fox would simply agree."

Not that he ever was, but it did amuse him when it came to how many rumors floated about the castle that the reason the Ace had not been named yet was because Victor Fox had dug his heels in.

Julien snorts. Not loud, but enough to get the gist across. He knows Victor too well for that. The fact that the man had even went for Ten had been a bit surprising. "He would have quite a lot of experience as regards the duties of an Ace."

He should be given a medal for how tightly he's reining himself in.

"He would, wouldn't he? And Katya has quite the shine for him. I think she'd be happy to see him as Ace." Still, it wasn't likely to happen and everyone knew it. Oh well, it saved them from replacing at Ten at least.

"And what is it that has you occupied today, Julien?"

"Oh," he says as he rolls his shoulders, "I thought I was taking a vacation, your Majesty."

There's a momentary flash of something like a smile on his face. Less an actual movement in his lips and more a movement of his eyebrows, of the muscles around his mouth.

"I've also found a few Sixes and Sevens who were looking for some...advanced training, if it please you."

He didn't really want Julien teaching anyone, but thus far Hadyn was still training with the former Ace and there seemed little stopping that. And it wasn't as if he could deny that Julien had something to teach the others.

"If you so desire, Julien, I see no reason for you do so such." It at least would keep the man busy, and that with hope would keep him out of trouble.

[ota] let me count the ways....

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Sorry for TL;DR

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let's add to the pile...

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