01- Daniel & Random at the Farm

I suppose I will arrange to have Random's unfortunate injury tended to. Perhaps I'll use one of those Trump cards to call for help for him. If I'm feeling generous, I might even give Random input on which card I use... And I suppose Oshi will be keeping an eye on me, to prevent me from changing my mind and putting the bastard out of my misery.

Ah, cursed conscience.

//-- GM
Were you thumbing through his Trump deck, or just teasing Random with the posibility of escape?

//-- out
As I believe the only other Trumps I have access to are those few Oshi had got hold of, I imagine I'm thumbing through his deck.

Which is not to say I'm not also teasing Random with the possibility of escape.

//--GM
Random's deck starts out pretty standard: Amber gates, Vialle, aunts and uncles... and then, on the other side of the stack of minor arcana, more renderings of aunts and uncles, in poses you don't recognize, with card backs that seem abstract enough... but still remind you of Texorami. There's at least two Brands in the second stack, and a demon thing that might be Brand. There are two Vialles with the Texorami back: one virginal and one trampy. None of the other elders get more than one second rendition.

//--Daniel
"Huh." I fan out the cards and show them to Oshi. "If we're sending this asshole back," Daniel visibly refrains from kicking the unconscious Random, "we should probably contact Vialle... the Vialle of Amber. But maybe you have some questions for him before we do?"

//--Oshi
Oshi would think a moment before replying.
"I have many questions, too many." She stops talking again for a moment before looking at Daniel. "For now the question of how I can reach you will suffice."

//--Daniel
Daniel nods at that, understanding. "Reach me? I have no idea, really. Where will you be staying? You want me to drop you somewhere? Back on that shadow from before this latest mess? I may know somebody you can leave messages with..." He gestures around a little, looking kind of lost. "So we just... we just hand Random back into his own life, huh?" Daniel apparently sees no irony in asking this advice of a twelve year old (now thirteen year old?) girl.

//--Sean
OOC: Oshi actually still looks the same age as when you met her, though technically I decided this after last years adventure. Though she probably looks older in some ways. And she still is technically 13ish.

//--Oshi
"I do not know where I will stay. I have some...business in this place. I will need you when this business is complete. Do the pictures not allow us to communicate?"

//--Daniel
"Only if we're in 'em. Which we're not." I shrug and look around. "I've stayed in worse dives. I can wait for you."

//--Oshi
She pauses for your answer and then looks toward Random. "You could kill him if you wish. I can not help you, my brother would not approve. I will not try to stop you however." Oshi speaks these words coldly as if it truly means nothing to her either way.

//--Daniel
"Wish I knew what your brother saw in him." Daniel looks up across the field over towards the smog of the city. "I've got to think on this. I put myself... I didn't make it clear to Vialle what my intention was, and I've got to think."

"What do you need? A day, couple of days?"

//--Oshi
"Perhaps a week. Maybe less, maybe more."

//--Daniel
"A week, then. Send word if you need more time, would you?"

//--Oshi
Oshi will nod. Once. Then head off into the city.

//--Daniel
When Oshi is gone, I set to binding Random's wounds. I pretend to myself I don't know who he is, and get his shattered knees in as stable a position as I can, bound to some boards for splints. When that's done well enough that my moving him doesn't risk destroying what remains of his legs, I hoist him up and into the more whole and wholesome of the buildings. I shove the dead bodies out into a temporary pile, put a clean piece of rug under him, sit down, and wait for him to wake up.

While waiting I alternate between whiskey and water. The cards are shoved in a stack in my coat pocket.

//--GM
When he awakens, maybe half an hour later, Random looks pleasantly surprised to be alive, then further concerned (or is it amused) at his surroundings. Any reaction to your presence one way or the other doesn't reach his eyes.

"I'm assuming you didn't bring Gerard by to do the patchwork, since I'm still here and your head isn't twisted off." He sits up halfway, propping himself on his elbows. If he's in much pain, he isn't letting on. "Nice splint-work."

//--Daniel
I swallow. I have no intention of being stoic, if that's the game. "Yeah. Sorry 'bout the knees. It was that or kill you, and Oshi wanted me to wait until she wasn't around." I haven't moved from where I'm sitting.

//--GM
Random smiles. "See, I knew she was a good kid." He leans a little farther forward, pats his breast pocket. After coming up empty, he turns his smile on you. "I don't suppose I get a cigarette first...?"

//--Daniel
"No, I don't suppose so." I look down between my knees, though maintaining an awareness of Random's body position. "You feel like talking? I have questions."

//--GM
"I can bring you in, but if I do, there's no getting you out again." He reaches behind his ear for a smoke and it comes out lit. "Keeping you out cost me a good woman and your goodwill, so don't answer lightly."

//--Daniel
"What does that mean? You can't talk without 'bringing me in?' And I need to know something before I decide anything. So... tell me, I guess.

//--GM
Something like genuine regret crosses his face, and then it's gone.

//--Daniel
"Mainly, I want to know what's up with you. You and Vialle; you and the trips into Shadow -- whatever you're looking for; you and me. These cards from Texorami and... elsewhere. And you and Brand. If I can get this close to you, he could've taken you out a long time ago. And back at that Shadow with his assassins? You could've had him, if you'd pushed it at all. Why didn't either of you act on that?"

//--GM
"Vialle and I... disagree. All the love and respect in the universe won't keep a woman from disagreeing with you. As for my trips, this place is dangerous, and I have to keep an eye on it." He takes a long drag from a uncomfortably familiar flavor of tobacco. "As far as the cards go, I felt I needed to further my education, now that I'm king." *smirks*

He contemplates the last part for a moment, unsure how far to go with you. After another drag, he settles for metaphorically pointing to the part of the iceberg above those dark political waters. "Brand tried regicide before, and it didn't go well for him. For my part... I'm not prepared to go to war with Fiona and Bleys over their twice-dead brother just yet."

//--Daniel
I stiffen a little. This is the heart of it, the difference between life and death. "I need to make sure I'm clear on this. Brand is sending people _not_ to try and kill you, like last year, and a bunch of people got killed -- including me, near enough -- while they tried _not_ to kill you." I can feel my expression is flat, my head tilted to one side. I realize I can't poker face this guy, because I'm _using_ his face. "Explain that to me."

//--GM
"When the attempt on my life was made, Brand was dead. I mean body-in-hand dead. After seeing Sabrand, I had to know whether I was chasing a Shadow or not before I moved on him. When I got back to Amber, Brand was alive again, and Fiona and Bleys were out of touch. That's how powerful this place is. Brother and sister walk through one day, and the next, the red-haired cabal is a threesome again." He smiles, this time an unpleasant bending of flesh to show teeth. "But I bet Brand remembers whose knife found his kidney years ago." His eyes darken further. "If he doesn't, we are well and truly fucked."

//--Daniel
I shake my head, frustrated. "Tell me about that. Why does that matter one way or the other?"

//--GM
"The three of them made a play for the throne, and the Patternfall War was the result. Brand decided to go a step farther than Fiona and Bleys could stomach, so they put him in a special nowhere so they wouldn't have to kill him. Redhead solidarity stayed their hand at first, I suppose. Anyway, when the rest of the family 'rescued' him, not realizing Brand's role in the Black Road and Chaos' march, Fiona tried to kill him. Almost did it, too. If they'd remained on the same side, most of us would be dead and the rest would be bowing to Bleys the First, with half of Chaos at the banquet and Oberon for the main course."

//--Daniel
"His knowledge of his sister's treachery keeps them from trusting one another fully. But, meanwhile, they cannot be killed?"

//--GM
"Oberon's first and last commandment was that no fratricide would ever hold the throne. I go for them without the proverbial bloody-knife-in-hand to show they had it coming, and I lose Arden to Julian, the fleet to Caine and Gerard, and Benedict has my head on a pike by lunchtime. Anything less than killing... well, Corwin showed us how well that could go, and frankly, your aunt has more nasty in her little finger - not to mention being the co-designer of a prison that could hold Brand."

//--Daniel
"And, even if they were killed, your Amber would bring them back, it seems.

//--GM
"Not my Amber. Dworkin's, maybe, but not mine."

//--Daniel
"What bloody knife do you need? Is Oshi's brother not bloody enough?"

//--GM
"If one of my siblings had claimed them, as they should have when they took the Pattern, then maybe, but I wouldn't be too sure." Random pauses, looking away for the first time in a while. "When you play chess with eight queens, the essence of developing pawns falls to keeping them out of the way. Losing one hurts the player but not so much the game."

//--Daniel
"So you take them into these situations knowing the only ones who can get hurt in this game is them. But they _don't_ know it, and so give their lives to protect you when you aren't even at risk." My mouth contorts in contempt. I can barely keep from spitting the words. "It's not me who should kill you. It's Oshi."

//--GM
"Spoken like a knight on an eight-queen board." He takes a drag, eyes distant. "I'm not going to count cost with you. Not on this." His gaze returns to you, tired but level. "Why don't you ask me something that you don't already have an answer prepared for in your head... take us past the 'bad dad' dynamic you've so neatly built your life around for a moment."

//--Daniel
"You don't understand why you're here." Still sitting against the wall, I raise and level the Ingram at Random's center trunk. "You don't understand why I didn't kill you: I wanted to be wrong." I ready my arm for the rising tracking of a burst from this metal monster. In the next split second I breathe in and visualize the first bullet taking out the base point of his sternum and his spine; the second blows apart his ribcage, heart and lung; the third and fourth -- holding down the track -- in the skull, to be sure.

//--GM
"Make sure you let the next king of Amber know not to accept the service of those who understand loyalty, because they might get hurt. Let the--"

//--Daniel
Not really listening, now. The man talking should already be dead. There's a rhythm to this, to killing with a weapon. Raise, two, fire. We're at four, and the hand has not responded.

With a quick change of direction I shove the muzzle into the soft space under my chin, though my expression doesn't change. The position is awkward. The Ingram is a long fucking gun. It pushes my head up a little, back against the wall. He was one. Changing aim was two. I breathe out. I brace my well-trained hand, and pull a long burst of fire from the trigger.

//--GM
The cold snap of the hammer against a dead round echoes through the room. Random stares at you for a moment, then rises awkwardly to his feet, hissing at the painful protest from his half-knit knees.

Other than a drop of sweat on his forehead, his composure is absolute. "Find something else to do with your life," he says, almost sounding disinterested. The Trump deck in your pocket goes bitter cold for a second, and Random disappears in a rainbow.

The room chills, and the gun grows heavy in your hand. Even the pool of Random's blood is just another colorless shadow on the gray wooden floor.

//--Daniel
I nod at him once before he goes without looking at him. Then I sit there a long time, going the color of the room.

I need a fix so bad it's like eight years never passed.

My hands take care of the business of the gun -- cleaning, inspecting, reloading, re-holstering -- while I stare off vacantly at an old backhoe-head rusting in the corner of the room. The Ingram'd never let me down before. Maybe she didn't this time, either.

I get up finally and go in search of a telephone, if one's working anywhere in this damn place. If not I start hiking back into town. In a place like this, the drugs are dirty enough to hit even a metabolism like mine. I intend to buy enough and enough bottles of water to head back to the farm where I promised I'd wait for Oshi. I just need a couple of days of BLANK. By the time she gets back, I'll be cool again.