Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 21, 2021 10:11:55 GMT -8
The moth took extra care to not be late this day. They had set up the place time a small coffee shop in Spring Valley. Riley sat at a back table, a small cappuccino in hand as they quietly examined the surroundings. No matter how long they had been living on a "normal" person's schedule, the night creature always looked out of place being out in the public mid-day. Riley had a lot on their mind of late, one would expect they might have vanished from the public eye after the events of Beltane, but the opposite proved true. The Brighton had made appearances in parties and clubs and made no sign of their social presence vanishing. However, the events of that night still lingered on their mind, and today they had some questions. Loki had said some hard things, things that made Riley question what they knew, and they wanted to hear Agrippa 's side of the tale. |
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Post by Agrippa on Jun 21, 2021 14:35:37 GMT -8
The verdant unicorn pushed through the doors, taking a cautious scan of the shop before their eyes found the fellow spring courtier sitting at the back table. They offered a wave and an expression on the friendly side of neutral before heading straight to the front to order. Two minutes later and they were heading back with something in a small cup topped with whipped cream and syrup.
"Sorry about that. Would feel rude walking into a place without ordering, you know?"
They placed the cup at the other end of the table, pulling out the seat and placing themselves in it with a heavy sort of grace.
"How are you?"
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 22, 2021 10:46:21 GMT -8
"No problem. I know the feeling" The darkling gives a smile before siting up in their seat. Taking a small sip of their Cappachino, they mulled over Agrippa's question.
"Honestly? Stressed. Been juggling a lot on my plate, and after Beltane...well there hasn't been much chill, ya know?"
The moth glanced at Agrippa, wondering if Unicorn was wearing a mask with that smile.
"What about you? How you holdin'?"
Riley took a moment to observe Agrippa, but wasn't able to notice anything hidden behind their words or smile.
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Post by Agrippa on Jun 22, 2021 15:13:48 GMT -8
Agrippa nodded empathetically, lips pulled taught in a grim smile.
"Oh course. I'm sorry your motley got tangled up in all of that."
Their voice was quiet and gentle. Thin fingers took hold of the stir stick embedded in the whipping cream that capped their drink. They got in a half stir before Riley's question froze their progress.
"I would love to give a response full of interest and whimsy, but honestly not much else other than writing has happened with me for the past couple weeks. I see lines of Times New Roman type when I close my eyes now. Its nearly maddening."
They chuckled, acceptance and desperation mixing in equal measure.
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 23, 2021 14:57:03 GMT -8
Riley understood the artist's life, to be consumed by your craft till it was everything. Till you couldn't tell if you loved or hated it. It was a exhausting and it was exhilarating.
“I bet. Don’t run those fingers raw with too much typing now” They say with a light joke.
For a moment Riley let the joke linger, but the coming topic hung in the air, making the atmosphere thick and expectant.
“Look...about Beltane” Riley starts.
“I was shocked by some of Loki’s claims and the one about you most of all. “ They scratch at the table lightly, anxious energy.
“I’ve heard Archies side, but I wanted to hear your side of it. “ They ask earnestly.
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Post by Agrippa on Jun 23, 2021 15:14:06 GMT -8
Agrippa wasn't surprised by the topic at all. They frowned lightly- bothered, but not angry.
"What did he say about it?"
The stir stick resumed on its course, making a full round. Patient and mildly curious, they sounded like a therapist.
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 24, 2021 6:24:01 GMT -8
They hesitate as Agrippa asks how Archie felt about it. It was an understandable question, and Riley had a feeling given what happened they werent on speaking terms currently.
“ Its not my place to say. I’ll let him speak for himself.” Riley knew better than to play telephone.
“I’m not here for him, or even to mend what happened. I just want to hear your story”
The Moth lingered on the thought for a moment. All stories had two sides. Both were a reality in their way. But Riley needed to hear it from Agrippa, the Unicorn deserved that much.
“Was it like Loki said? Did...does it feel that way?”
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Post by Agrippa on Jun 24, 2021 16:41:21 GMT -8
"Then I won't hear it."
It was a statement of fact, spoken with a listless acceptance. They nudged the stir stick to the side with a thumb and took a long drink. By the time the cup hit the table again, Riley had finished speaking for a few seconds.
"I'll start from the top."
They took a deep breath, carefully sliding the cup to the side so they could rest their forearms on the table and cradle their hands before them
"Back at the start of this season Archie learned I was an author. Bid me to sign up with him as a talent agent. At the time I was searching for a publisher and I was nearly drowning in rejection letters, so it wasn't an unwelcome prospect. The first meeting went beautifully. I showed him the one book I had published and the manuscript I was working on and he was incredibly enthusiastic, all wide eyed and blue-sky ideas. His attitude was infectious, and I signed the contract on the spot. I suspect it would have kept that way for a little longer, save for the sudden and tragic vacation of my creative muse."
They shook their head
"When a creative gets to a certain point in their careers, I've heard that they are able to work around it. Even with it. I'm... not quite there yet. As I said earlier, I only had the one book at the time, and it was published before I had my own sudden and tragic vacation. If I had been working on the project on my own time, I would have scrapped the thing and moved on. But I wasn't, so I pushed through. The contract gave me an editor and the act of pushing through meant sending her draft after draft after draft. You can imagine it wasn't cheap. I ran up the budget and the product I got out of it was little better than mediocre. Not worth the price Archie had paid for it. He knew that as well as I did.
So he calls me into his office. He's angry and I feel awful. He explains that he needs to recoup his costs and thus offers me an ultimatum. Either I have my name on the cover but he takes every last cent of the book sales, or I get the money as per the contract, but he get to put a different name on the cover. I take the money. I'm not rich, and I don't mind not being particularly known anyways."
One of their hands broke free from the other, reaching for their drink and taking another slow sip. Despite the pause, it was abundantly clear from their expression and composure that they weren't done
"Somehow the conversation only goes downhill from there. I suspect that Archie was attempting to give me tough love and encourage me to do better by acting as cryptically disappointed as he could, but I was on the verge of tears. He kept on asking me what I wanted and accused me of being aimless, despite me telling him multiple times exactly what I wanted in no uncertain terms. He kept on acting disappointed in my answers but refused to tell me what he wanted from me. I nearly had a nervous breakdown."
The other hand broke from position to rub at the side of their face. They closed their eyes and furrowed their brows
"I was trying to guess at what he wanted. Told him I understood that I had messed up and that he couldn't afford that. Told him I understood that he didn't want an apology because he hadn't wanted me to fail in the first place. Gave him an apology anyways, and assured him that I would continue trying, what with him implying I was aimless and all. Whether I agreed or disagreed with him didn't matter. He acted disappointed in everything I said.
And so at one point I asked him why we were working together. He had threatened he should dump the contract earlier in the conversation, and I expressed that I was no longer confident enough in my own abilities to feel comfortable spending his money. He wouldn't consider it. So I asked him not to throw any resources behind my next project, if he was insisting on keeping me. He'd have his part of my next project's sales as per the contract, but without any sunk investment on his end. If I would succeed the second go around, then he'd have the good book that he had originally invested in. If not, then at least he wasn't out any more and I wasn't being a drain on his accounts. But he wasn't having it, and thus came ultimatum number two.
Either I take his help and owe him money, or we skip the middle man and I owe him directly through the Wyrd. I write a book alone by the end of the season, or I owe him a pledge of six months of service."
Their hand fell to the table with a quiet thud
"With clearer judgement I wouldn't have accepted. At least I would have asked what the terms of service specifically were. At least I would have made him clearly put the terms of that service in the recitation of the oath... but I was emotionally exhausted and desperate to find something, anything, I could do that wouldn't be met with his disapproval. So I agreed.
And thus it is that I would owe Archie an unspecified kind of indentured servitude for six months, if I hadn't completed a book in time."
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 25, 2021 10:39:45 GMT -8
The darkling listened closely as Agrippa laid out the story from their side of things. It was mostly a recollection of events, and the Moth noted that the Unicorn tried to express the events factually. It seemed clear that the events at the time were traumatic and difficult for the Unicorn, but Riley couldnt tell if Agrippa held resentment or anger towards Archie, or what their hopes were for the future in all this.
Riley kept an indecipherable face on during the story. Not revealing their personal feelings or reacting to each moment. They nod along, taking the information bit by bit.
As the tale comes to an end, Riley gives Agrippa a moment, allowing them to add anything if they wish and seeming to digest what they just heard.
"Thank you for sharin' that Pen. I am sorry that happened."
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Post by Agrippa on Jun 25, 2021 15:08:03 GMT -8
Agrippa took another drink from their cup before slowly setting it once again aside, now virtually empty. Though their eyes looked tired, they didn't once stray from their fellow Spring. For a moment, they were quiet.
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 25, 2021 15:29:24 GMT -8
Riley was tired, and beneath the veneer of a stoic express, the Unicorn could sense they were conflicted.
As the Unicorn wove their tale of woe, they pick up small ticks, flicks of the eye, an adjustment in the seat, a restlessness in their hands. The events that had transpired both upset and angered the Moth. There was pity there, too; it seems to be around the Unicorn's emotional experience during the meeting. But also a deep well of frustrations.
Agrippa sensed that some of the frustration was focused upon them; the other, they could guess, was on Archie, or maybe the situation as a whole. There was anger; was it because this happened or the mistreatment? Or were they angry because of the events of Beltane? It was hard to say, probably all of it.
In the end, there was regret or perhaps disenchantment. The Moth seems to grow weary and tired, perhaps unable to imagine how this goes forward.
"I am sorry that happened. I can't apologize on Archis's behalf. But I can tell you I wish this had happened differently," They say in all honesty.
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Post by Agrippa on Jun 25, 2021 16:02:55 GMT -8
Agrippa nodded, slow and empathetic
"As well you shouldn't. I don't expect him to apologize, but if he does..."
They shrugged. There was something optimistic in the tone, though exactly what was left unsaid
"In any case, its all over now. The book is done, and if it isn't good enough then I'll be damned because that thing might well be near the best thing I've ever committed to paper. Hopefully he will let me keep it beyond his fees, but either way I suppose it doesn't really matter. I just want to be free of this."
Finally their eyes broke contact, looking out and over their shoulder towards the shop window. Their voice had nearly lowered to a whisper.
"If you do speak to him about it, you can tell him I'm sorry I cost him if you want. I told him, but I'm not sure he heard."
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jun 29, 2021 8:02:13 GMT -8
The darkling breaks into a small smile, hearing about the quality of the book.
"That's really good to hear," Riley says with a nod. They pause, almost making a comment about how deadlines and pressures always seemed to produce the best work. But quickly realized that...probably wasn't what Agrippa needed to hear.
To Agrippas request to send a message along Riley gives a nod. It likely wouldn't change anything. Archie had made up his mind on all of this.
"I will. Don't know if it will do much, but I'll pass it along."
The moth looks down at the empty cup for a moment. Letting the information rest upon them. After a stint of silence, Riley muses out loud
"Sometimes, I wonder. If we really are the people we were before, or if in the end, we are truly what they made us, ya know?"
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Post by Agrippa on Jun 29, 2021 20:54:59 GMT -8
"Thank you. I don't think it will either, but I hope we are wrong. I refuse to believe that he's inherently a bad person- he just sometimes reacts to a perceived loss of control in ways that hurt people. He doubles down, conversations with him hit brick walls, and mistakes get ballooned as a result. I wish I could sort it out with him, but even before all of this happened, conversations with him were like labyrinths. Talk to him for thirty minutes and leave more lost than before. I... don't feel safe talking to him alone."
Agrippa's fingers ran back and fourth along the edge of the table, providing a soft white noise to accompany their quiet regret
"My hope is he would be less defensive with you. I don't want to be his enemy, but I'm not the one who gets to decide that. not on my own."
The moth's implication of their shared trauma brought the unicorn's eyes back to them. Their brows knotted and their lips tightened in a sort of sad concern
"We are not the same. We are older. Everyone is changed by time, even those whose time wasn't filled by waking nightmares. And we were affected by them, but by how much is neither a possible nor useful metric to measure. Our past is part of us, but so it our present and our futures. The past cannot holistically define us."
They shook their head
"And even if this situation would not have happened were it not for them, the solution to our own behaviors are not found in cursing them. We can and should acknowledge the part that trauma has in shaping what we do, but explanations for toxic behavior are not excuses. We are the only ones who can fix them, and we need to if we are to thrive."
There was a pause as the beast reached the end of their train of thought. It brought with it softer features and a shrug
"And we are all working on it. I know I've made mistakes over the course of this that I won't repeat. Mending what I can, and apologizing for the rest, even if it fell on deaf ears when I tried...
I know Archie can do the same. I trust he can."
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Riley Sorsa
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Presence (3) Captivating | SL(1) Stylish Mantle (2)Spring | Status(1) Entertainment
Posts: 913
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Post by Riley Sorsa on Jul 1, 2021 16:00:36 GMT -8
"We are the only ones who can fix them, and we need to if we are to thrive."
Those words lingered in the Moth's mind for a moment. The pit inside seemed to twist at the thought. Could there be change, or was it a fool's hope, a veiled grasp at thinking they had any control? Riley didn't say the thoughts aloud; instead, letting them pass.
"I hope your right, Pen. It's fine not wanting to speak to him alone; I can understand that. Archie... is going to need time. "
Maybe time was not enough. Forgiveness? Would others see apologies as strength like Agrippa? Or Would the less savory within the freehold see it as a rent in the armor, a vulnerability to be exploited.
"I hope your right about who we are and what we can become." they let out a sigh letting the weight of that thought try and slide off their back.
"I guess time will tell"
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