ree + rayna + godric // restraint
Who: Ree, Rayna, & Godric
When: Yesterday
Where: The Hour
Ratings & Warnings: PG?
It had been long enough.
Everything was prepared now; all that was needed was for them to act. Ree was only vaguely aware of how quickly his heart beat in his chest, how his insides seemed to shake. It was not fear, but adrenaline that coursed through him. They had come here to potentially take the leader of the Hour into custody, for the protection of the city and Ree was ready for a fight. Godric's arrogance had gone on long enough, irrevocably changed too many for them not to stop him. The Guard would likely turn a blind eye - but would the king? It was known that he and Godric were friends, after all. A well placed word could lead to serious consequences for both he and Rayna.
But now was not the time to consider such things. They must act now, or risk more damage coming to the Hour. Godric was obviously not in his right mind. It was time to stop him before things got even worse for the city.
Though internally vibrating with anticipation, externally the only sign that Ree was not entirely calm was his hand, glued to his bottom lip as they approached the Magus's office door. Left-handed, he rapped on the wood with his knuckles firmly, loudly. "Godric. We need to speak."
The experiment with Belief had been a wonderful success. Oh, it had ruffled a few feathers, but nothing that couldn't be soothed once they all saw just how much money he'd gotten out of it. As a man who'd been moderately wealthy all his life, Godric didn't especially care about money; he cared about what he could do with it. Their funding had taken a serious blow after the werewolf incident, and the Hour itself was badly in need of repairs. Though, Godric considered, the repairs could (and ought to, in his mind) take lower priority than continued efforts to further Belief. They could acquire more subjects like Llewelyn - but unlike Llewelyn, they should not have ledgers. Privacy - no, security, that sounded better - was important.
At the knock he looked up from his desk, blinked for a moment, and then frowned. What did Jones want now? More tiresome complaints, he expected. "What is it?" he called crossly.
In no way did she enjoy doing this. However, Godric was the biggest danger to the city the Hour had been suffering. Werewolves, naga, witches, vampires... They worked on the surface. Godric was a far more insidious type. Without him, without his experiments on Belief, who knew how healthy Tyrol might have been now.
Flatly angry, Rayna stayed behind Ree until they stepped into the Magus' office. She forced herself to keep her eyes on Godric's face. After a single nod, she cleared her throat and closed the door gently behind them. "The Magisters agree that you need to stop this experiment with Belief."
There were gentler ways to phrase it, but she was ninety-six percent certain Godric wouldn't respond to them. Rayna was ready to haul him out of his office this very second, if only for the damage he'd caused with his irresponsibility.
Ree had dropped his hand from his mouth once they'd stepped inside. Now he held his hands behind his back, not sure what else to do with them. "This is something we have agreed together," he said, voice quiet and calm. "Stop this now, or we will stop it for you."
That sounded reasonable enough, did it not? But why try to be reasonable in the face of Godric's arrogance? He stared at the Magus, his expression neutral. Rarely was Ree roused to anger; it clouded his mind and clarity was so desperately needed in Tyrol. Had he faced Godric alone, keeping a cool head might have been difficult. Not for the first time was he thankful Rayna stood with him. Ree raised his eyebrows, his blue eyes widening ever so slightly, his mouth remaining a line.
"Will you stop voluntarily, or will we need to intervene?"
Godric stared. He looked between them, brow creased faintly in puzzlement, and when they simply stared solidly back at him he burst into a loud laugh. "This- This is some sort of prank?" He was grinning at them both, eyes as bright as a schoolboy. They'd lobbied these same ideas at him before, yes, but to demand - for Magisters to demand of a Magus - was ridiculous. They were out of their heads, or else thought the idea was very funny. Godric didn't think so, but he didn't like the idea of getting angry only to find he'd been fooled by a joke.
"Yes, yes, of course," he laughed, setting down his pen. "At once. What else should you like me to do? I am quite at your service." He giggled a bit on the last word, then pursed his lips together to keep from grinning even more.
"This isn't a joke, Vance," she said as levelly as she could. If he was going to forego all courtesy by laughing in their faces, she certainly wasn't going to call him by a title he hadn't been worthy of in months. Rayna glanced to Ree, wondering if he was going to offer Godric a second chance. Already, her hand was curled around the ties in her pockets. "Turn it off. That's all you need to do."
There was no reasoning with him. Still, if Ree wanted to try, that was his business. Before long, she'd be dragging the Magus up hard stone stairs, thinking of that girl Alex killed in cold blood.
Ree blinked in the face of Vance's mirth, his face rearranging itself to mild confusion briefly. It was back to neutral soon enough, however. "This is no joke," he assured him, an edge of cool creeping into his voice. "You've put us and the entire city into grave peril. You play out fantasies of godhood without care for the Hour - for the city, for anyone but yourself. You have not been behaving appropriately for a leader of the Golden Hour."
He paused, cocking his head slightly to one side. Ree strongly doubted Vance would display anything other than a childish fit of temper at his words, but he would try to get through to him nonetheless. It was only fair. "Behave appropriately, turn Belief back down and begin to work with the level of competence and wisdom expected of you, or we will stop you. Here and now, we will stop you."
This was Godric's last chance; he wouldn't take it, Ree thought. Subtly shifting his weight so as to block the door if Godric tried to run, he nodded to Rayna. He had full confidence she could take it from here.
Godric's smile fell into a pinched frown of irritation. This again? They'd been harping on him about this from the beginning; did none of them understand? Of course it affected the populace. That was the point. And if it endangered some of them, well, that was an unfortunate but necessary side effect. One could hardly expect a scientist to stop his experiments if a few of the rats he tested suffered. The only problem was that now the rats were bigger, and had the ability to complain. And now the people who listened to rats were here to lecture him.
"Do you deem your behavior appropriate?" Godric snapped at Ree. "Break into my office, harass me, and for what? We've more funding now than ever. The King himself sees how useful all of this is, how revolutionary. Why not you?" He waved his hand dismissively. "You should never have been Magisters if you'd dismiss all my work so carelessly. Get out."
Rayna was impassive through Ree's speech. It was a very good speech, but he might as well have tried to convince one of her sons of the benefits of bathing through rhetoric. She studied the Magus a long while. Belief had changed him, too. He'd always been callous, but his own child had been turned into something inhuman and unidentifiable by Belief and he wished to continue the project? He was mad.
"We knocked," was all she said before rounding on Godric and binding his hands behind his back. The gag would come next, but only if he shouted. Rayna was perfectly fine with having Ree do the talking. After all, nothing that Godric could say would change her mind.
Ree inclined his head as Rayna moved to work. "As she says," he replied, voice wintery, "we knocked. Funding should not come at the price of our ethics or the lives of others, Vance. Even you must realise that."
They did not dismiss his work. Merely, they imposed a limit - one he had refused to stand by. "We are going to give you some time to reflect by yourself, to meditate upon ethics and wisdom. I hope you use it well."
The idea of one of his Magisters binding his hands was so ludicrous that Godric didn't so much as flinch when Rayna took him by the arm. The feeling of the ties looping around his wrist was similarly astonishing; he twisted around to gape at what she was doing before he thought to protest. "H-How- How dare--" he spluttered. Were they serious? They were, weren't they. His Magisters were- what? Arresting him?
He let out another laugh, still hoping this might be some feeble attempt at a joke, or if it wasn't, that they might see by his laughter how very ridiculous it was. "Really, what do you think you're doing? You can't lock me up. I'm your Magus, Jones. Evandros, really. Think of your husband. He'd never do somethign so ludicrous."
Rayna pushed his chair backwards, then fell on him, one knee in Godric's stomach and one hand around his neck. For a moment, her chest heaving in anger, she thought about ending this all in a second. Vance would never change. What did it matter if they imprisoned him? She'd be doing the city a favor by dispatching the creator of Belief himself. Instead, she let go of his throat and held down his shoulders. Her face was still knotted with fury. How dare he talk about Duncan.
"Anything else to say, Magister?" she muttered.
Ree took a few steps as Rayna snapped, ready to drag her off - when she turned to him, he was still tensed and ready to leap across the room to rip them apart. His jaw was clenched, he realised, as though from far above himself, his fists clenched, funny. He would not stand a shadow of a chance against Rayna should she decide to gut Vance. Why had he been so ready to try?
Relaxing into a normal stance, he shook his head. "I have nothing more to say to him. Except," he gave Godric a severe look. "Remember what happened here was avoidable. Remember you brought this on yourself. Behave better, with more wisdom and less callousness and disregard for others, and it will not happen again."
His eyes slid to Rayna once more, wanting to say something else, something to soothe the anger and pain that seemed to be ready to erupt. But even he knew that this was neither the time, nor the place. "Goodbye, Godric."
His eyes were round with shock as Rayna eased her hands from his throat. Had she really been about to...? He swallowed nervously, throat bobbing. He'd known about her change, but really, that was no need to lose her temper so drastically... or was that an effect of her transformation? Did they have records on that? He ought to have assigned someone to study her.
He was jolted out of these musings by Ree, who he looked to with unguarded distaste. "Remember I am friends with the King, Jones, and you will lose the Hour far more credibility than you will gain it when the public finds you have locked me up. This whole thing is ridiculous," he declared firmly, "And I expect to be put back in my quarters by sunset." He glanced warily to Rayna. "And show a little restraint, Evandros, for fuck's sake." Godric drew a deep breath. "Well, if you're going to do this, let's. I'm very tired of listening to the both of you."
"The feeling is mutual."
Rayna pulled the gag out of her pocket, forced it into the Magus' mouth and tied it behind his head. She stared down at him, appreciating how lovely it was to see a man who'd turned himself into a mouthpiece silenced. Tossing her hair out of her face, Rayna stood and flipped Godric's chair up roughly. Her hand tangled in the back of his jacket.
"Can you watch the stairs?" she asked, yanking Godric to his feet.
"I can." Ree opened the door and looked out on the corridor, before stepping out. Vance was wrong; he had no doubt they could keep the situation under control once they'd dealt with him.
"Good luck with him Rayna, I'll keep people away." Giving a curt nod, he set out to watch the stairs.
When: Yesterday
Where: The Hour
Ratings & Warnings: PG?
It had been long enough.
Everything was prepared now; all that was needed was for them to act. Ree was only vaguely aware of how quickly his heart beat in his chest, how his insides seemed to shake. It was not fear, but adrenaline that coursed through him. They had come here to potentially take the leader of the Hour into custody, for the protection of the city and Ree was ready for a fight. Godric's arrogance had gone on long enough, irrevocably changed too many for them not to stop him. The Guard would likely turn a blind eye - but would the king? It was known that he and Godric were friends, after all. A well placed word could lead to serious consequences for both he and Rayna.
But now was not the time to consider such things. They must act now, or risk more damage coming to the Hour. Godric was obviously not in his right mind. It was time to stop him before things got even worse for the city.
Though internally vibrating with anticipation, externally the only sign that Ree was not entirely calm was his hand, glued to his bottom lip as they approached the Magus's office door. Left-handed, he rapped on the wood with his knuckles firmly, loudly. "Godric. We need to speak."
The experiment with Belief had been a wonderful success. Oh, it had ruffled a few feathers, but nothing that couldn't be soothed once they all saw just how much money he'd gotten out of it. As a man who'd been moderately wealthy all his life, Godric didn't especially care about money; he cared about what he could do with it. Their funding had taken a serious blow after the werewolf incident, and the Hour itself was badly in need of repairs. Though, Godric considered, the repairs could (and ought to, in his mind) take lower priority than continued efforts to further Belief. They could acquire more subjects like Llewelyn - but unlike Llewelyn, they should not have ledgers. Privacy - no, security, that sounded better - was important.
At the knock he looked up from his desk, blinked for a moment, and then frowned. What did Jones want now? More tiresome complaints, he expected. "What is it?" he called crossly.
In no way did she enjoy doing this. However, Godric was the biggest danger to the city the Hour had been suffering. Werewolves, naga, witches, vampires... They worked on the surface. Godric was a far more insidious type. Without him, without his experiments on Belief, who knew how healthy Tyrol might have been now.
Flatly angry, Rayna stayed behind Ree until they stepped into the Magus' office. She forced herself to keep her eyes on Godric's face. After a single nod, she cleared her throat and closed the door gently behind them. "The Magisters agree that you need to stop this experiment with Belief."
There were gentler ways to phrase it, but she was ninety-six percent certain Godric wouldn't respond to them. Rayna was ready to haul him out of his office this very second, if only for the damage he'd caused with his irresponsibility.
Ree had dropped his hand from his mouth once they'd stepped inside. Now he held his hands behind his back, not sure what else to do with them. "This is something we have agreed together," he said, voice quiet and calm. "Stop this now, or we will stop it for you."
That sounded reasonable enough, did it not? But why try to be reasonable in the face of Godric's arrogance? He stared at the Magus, his expression neutral. Rarely was Ree roused to anger; it clouded his mind and clarity was so desperately needed in Tyrol. Had he faced Godric alone, keeping a cool head might have been difficult. Not for the first time was he thankful Rayna stood with him. Ree raised his eyebrows, his blue eyes widening ever so slightly, his mouth remaining a line.
"Will you stop voluntarily, or will we need to intervene?"
Godric stared. He looked between them, brow creased faintly in puzzlement, and when they simply stared solidly back at him he burst into a loud laugh. "This- This is some sort of prank?" He was grinning at them both, eyes as bright as a schoolboy. They'd lobbied these same ideas at him before, yes, but to demand - for Magisters to demand of a Magus - was ridiculous. They were out of their heads, or else thought the idea was very funny. Godric didn't think so, but he didn't like the idea of getting angry only to find he'd been fooled by a joke.
"Yes, yes, of course," he laughed, setting down his pen. "At once. What else should you like me to do? I am quite at your service." He giggled a bit on the last word, then pursed his lips together to keep from grinning even more.
"This isn't a joke, Vance," she said as levelly as she could. If he was going to forego all courtesy by laughing in their faces, she certainly wasn't going to call him by a title he hadn't been worthy of in months. Rayna glanced to Ree, wondering if he was going to offer Godric a second chance. Already, her hand was curled around the ties in her pockets. "Turn it off. That's all you need to do."
There was no reasoning with him. Still, if Ree wanted to try, that was his business. Before long, she'd be dragging the Magus up hard stone stairs, thinking of that girl Alex killed in cold blood.
Ree blinked in the face of Vance's mirth, his face rearranging itself to mild confusion briefly. It was back to neutral soon enough, however. "This is no joke," he assured him, an edge of cool creeping into his voice. "You've put us and the entire city into grave peril. You play out fantasies of godhood without care for the Hour - for the city, for anyone but yourself. You have not been behaving appropriately for a leader of the Golden Hour."
He paused, cocking his head slightly to one side. Ree strongly doubted Vance would display anything other than a childish fit of temper at his words, but he would try to get through to him nonetheless. It was only fair. "Behave appropriately, turn Belief back down and begin to work with the level of competence and wisdom expected of you, or we will stop you. Here and now, we will stop you."
This was Godric's last chance; he wouldn't take it, Ree thought. Subtly shifting his weight so as to block the door if Godric tried to run, he nodded to Rayna. He had full confidence she could take it from here.
Godric's smile fell into a pinched frown of irritation. This again? They'd been harping on him about this from the beginning; did none of them understand? Of course it affected the populace. That was the point. And if it endangered some of them, well, that was an unfortunate but necessary side effect. One could hardly expect a scientist to stop his experiments if a few of the rats he tested suffered. The only problem was that now the rats were bigger, and had the ability to complain. And now the people who listened to rats were here to lecture him.
"Do you deem your behavior appropriate?" Godric snapped at Ree. "Break into my office, harass me, and for what? We've more funding now than ever. The King himself sees how useful all of this is, how revolutionary. Why not you?" He waved his hand dismissively. "You should never have been Magisters if you'd dismiss all my work so carelessly. Get out."
Rayna was impassive through Ree's speech. It was a very good speech, but he might as well have tried to convince one of her sons of the benefits of bathing through rhetoric. She studied the Magus a long while. Belief had changed him, too. He'd always been callous, but his own child had been turned into something inhuman and unidentifiable by Belief and he wished to continue the project? He was mad.
"We knocked," was all she said before rounding on Godric and binding his hands behind his back. The gag would come next, but only if he shouted. Rayna was perfectly fine with having Ree do the talking. After all, nothing that Godric could say would change her mind.
Ree inclined his head as Rayna moved to work. "As she says," he replied, voice wintery, "we knocked. Funding should not come at the price of our ethics or the lives of others, Vance. Even you must realise that."
They did not dismiss his work. Merely, they imposed a limit - one he had refused to stand by. "We are going to give you some time to reflect by yourself, to meditate upon ethics and wisdom. I hope you use it well."
The idea of one of his Magisters binding his hands was so ludicrous that Godric didn't so much as flinch when Rayna took him by the arm. The feeling of the ties looping around his wrist was similarly astonishing; he twisted around to gape at what she was doing before he thought to protest. "H-How- How dare--" he spluttered. Were they serious? They were, weren't they. His Magisters were- what? Arresting him?
He let out another laugh, still hoping this might be some feeble attempt at a joke, or if it wasn't, that they might see by his laughter how very ridiculous it was. "Really, what do you think you're doing? You can't lock me up. I'm your Magus, Jones. Evandros, really. Think of your husband. He'd never do somethign so ludicrous."
Rayna pushed his chair backwards, then fell on him, one knee in Godric's stomach and one hand around his neck. For a moment, her chest heaving in anger, she thought about ending this all in a second. Vance would never change. What did it matter if they imprisoned him? She'd be doing the city a favor by dispatching the creator of Belief himself. Instead, she let go of his throat and held down his shoulders. Her face was still knotted with fury. How dare he talk about Duncan.
"Anything else to say, Magister?" she muttered.
Ree took a few steps as Rayna snapped, ready to drag her off - when she turned to him, he was still tensed and ready to leap across the room to rip them apart. His jaw was clenched, he realised, as though from far above himself, his fists clenched, funny. He would not stand a shadow of a chance against Rayna should she decide to gut Vance. Why had he been so ready to try?
Relaxing into a normal stance, he shook his head. "I have nothing more to say to him. Except," he gave Godric a severe look. "Remember what happened here was avoidable. Remember you brought this on yourself. Behave better, with more wisdom and less callousness and disregard for others, and it will not happen again."
His eyes slid to Rayna once more, wanting to say something else, something to soothe the anger and pain that seemed to be ready to erupt. But even he knew that this was neither the time, nor the place. "Goodbye, Godric."
His eyes were round with shock as Rayna eased her hands from his throat. Had she really been about to...? He swallowed nervously, throat bobbing. He'd known about her change, but really, that was no need to lose her temper so drastically... or was that an effect of her transformation? Did they have records on that? He ought to have assigned someone to study her.
He was jolted out of these musings by Ree, who he looked to with unguarded distaste. "Remember I am friends with the King, Jones, and you will lose the Hour far more credibility than you will gain it when the public finds you have locked me up. This whole thing is ridiculous," he declared firmly, "And I expect to be put back in my quarters by sunset." He glanced warily to Rayna. "And show a little restraint, Evandros, for fuck's sake." Godric drew a deep breath. "Well, if you're going to do this, let's. I'm very tired of listening to the both of you."
"The feeling is mutual."
Rayna pulled the gag out of her pocket, forced it into the Magus' mouth and tied it behind his head. She stared down at him, appreciating how lovely it was to see a man who'd turned himself into a mouthpiece silenced. Tossing her hair out of her face, Rayna stood and flipped Godric's chair up roughly. Her hand tangled in the back of his jacket.
"Can you watch the stairs?" she asked, yanking Godric to his feet.
"I can." Ree opened the door and looked out on the corridor, before stepping out. Vance was wrong; he had no doubt they could keep the situation under control once they'd dealt with him.
"Good luck with him Rayna, I'll keep people away." Giving a curt nod, he set out to watch the stairs.