#fenixtj

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Hours after an ant farm was left, Duff enters Fenix hold

Jessica, walking with no trace of injury or stiffness, enters the room with the Balefire and takes a seat on the hearthstones. "Hello there." she murmurs to the 'FIre.

The fire roars lightly, almost playfully. Can a hold be in a good mood?

Duff watches her for a moment, her hair flickering in the green light of the balefire, the way it catches her eyes, "Shaking antfarms for chaos is like reading a romantic novel for a sex drive. Entertaining, but really it's just a teaser"

She looks over and a quick smile flashes over her features, lighting them from the inside. "Well. I thought maybe it would help tide you over." She stands.

"I appreciate the thought, bonnie Bonita" He moves to her and takes her hands in his , "It's nice to know you think of me. I undersand there was some chimerical beast i nthe area?"

She nods. "Noxious, but deceased now." She holds his hands lightly, easily.

"You aren't hurt?" He looks her over, "At least, not anymore?"

"A bruise, and even that's gone." she confirms.

His hands don't pull away, he enjoys the contact even as he looks over her

"Good. Choas where a beautiful woman is maimed or marred is over rated." A soft squeeze, "Any other news?"

"Mm." She looks around, then, keeping his hand in hers, she leads him to her room.

He follows.

Inside, the door shut. "Some of the Co-op took advantage of Tweak being confined. She's dealing with it, and she has my support, but some of the weapons makers might have stepped off the reservation, or be ready to."

"Indeed?" he doesn't seem surprised by the latter, "That explains why it hasn't been as low supply as I thought. These folks who 'took advantage' Tweak knows she needs to step on them yes?"

She nods. "Yes. She knows her people."

"Good. " He frowns "I ..might have stolen some of the consortium's guns."

"WHAT?" Flabbergasted.

After a stunned moment, she pulls her hand away.

"Well, I knew you didn't want them on the street... and these were in danger of going to fight nunhei " A pause as her hand slides away "Call me a hypocrite. I don't obey your commands unless I want to, but i don't like it when OTHERS disobey you"

"Oh. Wait. You didn't steal them -from- the consortium?"

"I stole them as they were being sold to someone who wanted to use them on Nunnehi. I think soemone in the Consortium was selling. It's an open theft. by the time the trade was ready to go, I had made sure they were gone. I have thirty guns from it. Some of them pretty weird nocker teck"

"Oh. Um. Ok. I'd like Tweak to have a look at them."

Duff looks at her "Jessica. For a sensible seelie girl, you can be a bit hard to predict. I like that about you, but tell me I wans't wrong? Because if you WANTED folks to use them against the Nunehi then I definitely made a mistake"

She shakes her head. "No, I just... for a minute when you said that it sounded like you'd stolen guns from the consortium, not stolen them away from a ... well, a prohibited sale."

"Well, in this case I thought it was one in the same, but I'm seeing noww that it's more like a faction of the consortium, and not one that Tweak likes. sure sure, I'll hand the guns back toh er... for a reasonable price even"

"A.... ok, you talk to Tweak about that."

"Are you okay," He sits one her bed and looks up at her

"Yes." A bit puzzled at the question. "Sorry I jumped to conclusions."

"Well, I've been in your room for minutes now and you haven't started to give a man what he craves..."

a beat, "A chance to tell you how my day is going, and what troubles me with life and a bit of sympathy about unruly customers. And maybe a chance to listen a bit to you as well bout your own thoughts too" He pats the bed

She chuckles quietly and sits beside him.

He wraps his arm about her waist and smles abit, "I had this idiot insist that the swatstika wasn't a racist symbol... I thought he was going to mention being a budhist or something, but no no... he said it was a symbol of looking after one's nation first. I'm like 'Asshole, you're mexican. You want a Mexican flag, you got it. But I am not putting nazi symbols on people"

"I would have thrown him through the window, but glass is expensive"

She gives him a soft smile. "What did you do?"

"Well it was easier to clean the blood from his lip off the floor. A shot to the jaw he got the hint. he thought about going for a knife but ...mmph, no. I'm sure he and some of his friends are trying to screw up courage to do something. Should be entertaining. "

A quiet moment. "Do we have more of a Nazi problem than we did?"

"Not really, they're just bolder..." He assures

"Well, that -is- more of a problem, isn't it." with a scowl.

"mmm you can't solve bigotry, my love. No person can. It's a cultural problem"

"So we change the culture." Matter of factly.

"Just like that?" Duff says starting at her with a mix of admiration and disbelief

"No, of course not." As if this is obvious. "Slowly, gradually, over time. But you change the culture."

He starts to massage her as he positions behind her "Oh well, yes, over time means there's no excuse not to." Rubbing.

Her smile is wry even as she leans back into his hands, his body, and sighs. "I mean... we fought a war over this." Mumbled.

"In our cases, perhaps literally true" Duff agrees, "If one of your past lives was during WW 2, you were probably part of some resistance "

"Huh." Thoughtful. "I don't remember much about past lives. Dad doesn't either."

"It's said there are ways too. But it's not a thing done for parlor games." He says "I remember a past life... but it's vague. Highlands. I think... i might have been a highwayman. I recall holding a pistol, a very primative one, to a coach man's head as a lovely woman took pearls from around her neck."

"It's the clearest moemtn from that life, the rest is..blurry"