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The C.I.C. - Weekend edition.

The weather was a little muggy out, but the C.I.C. was once again cooled to almost refrigeration. Kaidan hadn't slept well the night before, so for once he beat the raven to the door. Flopping down in his desk chair, he pulled a small children's book covered in post-it notes out from under the register. Some scrap paper and a pencil were added. Kaidan began sluggishly going through the book, forcing himself to read the non-English alphabet exclusively. He was getting better at it, he only missed two words this time.

Then the hard part - writing the alphabet. He did one round of A-B-Cs before trying to put them together in words. Pity the Aurebesh-literate person who actually read the paper.

His first customers came in, and Kaidan managed a weary smile while he set them up in one of the suites. He hoped the day would be slow. The raven showed up, and he let it in. Once on the counter, it kept trying to steal his pencil, so he distracted it with pennies and kept the pencil in his grip, writing more words.

Description of shop is here.

[OOC: CIC is open, no OCD! I am a convention widower this weekend, pls feel free to distract.]

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Seivarden hade debated with herself all day whether it was a good idea to seek out Kaidan, but after feeling miserable at work all day, she figured it couldn't make things worse. Either Kaidan would have a sensible explanation (unlikely) or she could take out her frustration on him (more likely). Of course, Seivarden's idea of what 'not making things worse' meant might be very particular to her.

So, here she was, entering the door, her mood visible enough on her face.

Edited 2018-07-07 14:47 (UTC)

Kaidan glanced up from the book when the door opened. When he saw who'd walked in, he closed the book and put it away. This was unlikely to be a short conversation. His voice neutral, he said, "Hello, Seivarden. What brings you in today?"

He could guess. He'd heard the radio broadcast. He'd also heard Seivarden lose her utter shit on the squirrels, which hadn't done much to improve his thoughts on the matter at hand.

"Oh, just stopping by to see how you are doing," Seivarden said, smiling the way any Radchaai with her background would know how to do in a situation like this.

"I found out this week that someone I considered a friend had, and I am putting this in the most charitable of ways, misled me rather badly, and I'm not happy about it," he answered calmly.

Oh, Seivarden could play that game too. She said, almost pleasantly: "That sounds bad. I'm sorry to hear it."

Kaidan shrugged, "I'm sorry you said it. I've no idea why. Care to clue me in?"

"I probably would if I knew what the question was."

Seivarden somehow managed not to sound defensive.

Kaidan sighed, then keyed up the monitor on the counter and turned it to face Seivarden. He hit 'play' on the codec and let the video of the now-infamous tea encounter roll. "This is your idea of people attacking and abusing you 'for no reason', and also your idea of 'just leaving'?" He wasn't angry - well, he was, but his voice was just tired.

"You haven't seen what has been going on for the past year," Seivarden said, now unable to hold back irritation, "It's not like things just started last week. So why judge from that?"

"No, I haven't, but I've heard some pretty disturbing things about how you've been acting over the last year or so," Kaidan said, then shrugged, "I didn't witness those. I didn't witness this - I had only your side of it until I saw this video, which makes it look like you were lying right to my face, Seivarden."

Edited 2018-07-07 16:13 (UTC)

"Why..." Seivatden made a frustrated gesture. "Why would I be lying? I think I can guess what Sparkle has been telling you, no, wait, I can't predict anything about him, but you've clearly made up your mind about who to believe."

"If I had already made up my mind about anything, would I even be asking you about this?" Kaidan asked, "Tell me, how is it the truth that you were attacked for no reason, when in the video you're being a right bitch to the staff at the Perk? How is it 'just leaving' when you spent several minutes taking shit out on Atton? Not that Atton was a prince of proper public behavior, but this? This isn't just walking away. You engaged. I'm giving you a chance to explain the discrepancy between what you told me and what's in this video."

"Because," Seivarden said, "the staff at the Perk have been bitchy about the tea for almost a year. What has that argument with Atton got to do with anything? It wasn't with the staff, was it? And why do you even care? We hardly know each other. Just decide you don't like me, then."

She snorted. "Sorry, I really don't get it."

"If you've acted like this every time you've ordered, I can see why they might've been," Kaidan replied, "If you pitched fits in my store, I wouldn't want you here, either, and that, what they're doing? It's called a 'white mutiny', when they can't just tell you to get out because they're service workers. The thing with Atton matters because you made it out that he attacked you for no reason and you just left, which.. you didn't do."

"It matters," he began, "because I thought we were, if not friends, at least headed in that direction. Was I wrong?"

Seivarden did her best not to look confused, which mostly succeeded. "I thought we were just talking," she finally said. "I didn't realize it was... important."

She had liked talking to Kaidan, sure, but friends? Old habit made her think of what Kaidan would get out of being friends with her, and quickly remembered that the answer to that was 'nothing'. Being a Vendaai here meant nothing.

The answer would always be 'nothing', because Kaidan didn't befriend people for the purpose of using them. That wasn't how he worked.

"How do you mean?"

In the Radch, for a member of a House like Vendaai, that answer was almost never 'nothing'. Anyone with Seivarden's background knew that they had to expect that.

Seivarden couldn't just say 'I didn't realize you just wanted to be friends' obviously, so she hesitated for a while. "It was just small talk. No, I don't get why that video upset you so much, and I hardly think it's proper to record stuff like that. Who gave it to you, by the way? Sparkle?"

She made a gesture with her hand. "You know, just forget it. I'd be disappointed if you helped Sparkle mess up that tea, though, because buying the island's complete stock of tea just to spite me is just petty. I can't imagine Iris was happy and it's her business."

Kaidan waited for Seivarden to answer. At the pause, he almost thought.. but then she spoke. "You don't understand why watching you berate service staff, when you told me they harassed you for no reason and you just walked out, would bother me."

Well, that was new. Also, unpleasant. "I don't know what Sparkle's plans are for the tea, though it probably involves glitter. He gave me some of it. It was petty. You hurt his feelings and he's reacting to that. He's just a kid, Seivarden."

"No, frankly, I don't, " Seivarden said. "And as far as I know Sparkle is an adult, even if he doesn't always act like it. The last time he got upset he punched me in the face, which is at least a bit more mature."

She made a gesture with her hand. "Just to be clear, I don't dislike him, but yeah, the tea thing was petty."

Shrugging, she continued: "I don't think we're getting anywhere here, are we?"

"No, clearly we're not, since you think your behavior was A-OK and can't imagine why it would upset me to hear one thing and see you acting in this manner instead," Kaidan said slowly. "Your idea of acceptable public behavior and mine are, it appears, radically different."

"Well," Seivarden said. "At least we agree on that." She smiled politely, adding:

"I won't keep you busy any longer."

Then she turned towards the door.

Kaidan wasn't going to stop her. He and the raven shared a look as she left.

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The C.I.C. - Weekend edition.

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