Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 04:10 PM
When Niabheara left, Marcello took of in the direction Gioia had headed, speedily, hoping to catch up with the woman-turned-cyborg.

"Signorina? Uno momenton per piacere?"

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 04:14 PM
Quite surprised to hear her own tongue she halted, turned, and replied in Cecilian "Yes, I have a moment. If I upset your countess, again I am sorry. I know I meddle, it is a failing of mine."

It was, and she was are of it. Not that it was such a huge failing that she was planning on changing it. not by a long shot.

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 04:29 PM
"It isn't that," he answered, still in Italian. "She's gone to speak with him. I think I may have been more upset than she was. You admit to meddling.then? To what purpose?"

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 04:33 PM
She turned to face him fully now, still speaking in cecilian as well "Was that not obvious? We are going into a war with knives at our throats... I thought that maybe... maybe I could share something that made her understand him more. Or at least be curious enough to seek him out and talk." She had caught the upset tone and frowned...

"Are you afraid that it is a trick of some sort?" The very thought made her look almost amused.

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 04:40 PM
'Suspicious, not afraid," Marcello answered. "And I don't know that you believe you lie, Signorina. I just don't know what to think of you. Either way, you know that saying such things is to toy with her emotions."

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 04:45 PM
Gioia put her hands together in a faint bow. "We have hardly spoken. It is not odd that you know next to notning about me when you have hardly left your Lady's side. I know that being a friend of Neelys makes everybody suspicious. But coming here was not something he had told me to do. In fact, if he would find out I suspect I might have lost a friend forever. He is a very private man and would not apprechiate what I am trying to do. And what I AM trying to do is to somehow make that gap between them a little smaller. I think it would do them both good to realize that every conversation does not need to be a battle, nor does their life depend on them winning. I am not toying with her emotions, every word I spoke, I spoke truly."

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 04:51 PM
"You are not toying with her emotions as your primary goal," Marcello corrected. "You would have to be a fool to claim in earnest that that is not the effect, desired or no. You know the man's history. He is a traitor, over and over again. I don't think he would harm his own daughter, but disappoint her? Abandon her? She doesn't deserve this, if she'll only get her hopes up so he can dash them.*

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 04:54 PM
"Perhaps that is where we differ then. Instead of knowing that there are no hope, I am hoping that there might be one. You might be right, she might get hurt again. He might as well. But it might also become slightly better in time... would that not be a chance worth taking? You might think that Neely is not worthy to take a chance on, but I know he is."

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 05:12 PM
The man's eyes flashed, fierce and dark. "Where Niabheara is concerned? He is worth nothing. If he started- if I were generous enough to believe he started with all things equal when he came back from the dead, he's already lost his credibility. He robbed her, he lied to her, deceived her, he worked with the Puck. The amount of recompense, of regret, of penitence I would see from him before I trust him with her- let alone with her life- could fill the oceans ten times over. You misunderstand me. It is not that I think there is no chance he would help. It is that I know there is a chance he will hurt. I am not the one who needs defend my motives, Signorina. A manipulator is a manipulator, whether they claim or even believe they manipulate for good or ill. And you are a manipulator."

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 05:21 PM
Gioia was silent a little, immutable in the face of Marcello's tirade. To be fair, it was easier when he was wearing Neely's face, because she had faced the man's annoyance many times before. She didn't seem to be upset or angry, rather she seemed a little sad.

She opened her mouth as if she was about to speak, then closed it again, shaking her head faintly. Finally she spoke"You are right in that then" she admitted "You have no need to defend your motives, if your Lady trusts you I am sure that they are pure. It is obvious how much you care about her." Her she paused again, fingering her faceplate before she continued "Whatever you might think, I have no stake in this save friendship. I'm just..." Her voice softened and she gave Marcello a kind smile "You don't have to worry, he would not replace you. In that he is more the outsider than you are. You don't have to defend her that viciously. Is it your place to say whether she should risk hurting herself?"

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 05:34 PM
Marcello laughed, and gave her a confounded look. "You think I'm afraid he'll replace me?" he asked, very clear in his complete perplexity that the thought had never crossed his mind. "No. Do you understand what you've done? It's not right. Do you know anything of their relationship? Over and over, she is the one making overtures to him. Now, again. Every time, he's failed her. You want this to heal? Don't make her open the same cycle over again. You claim friendship with the man. He is the one who needs to change, to break the cycle. Not her. He's a coward. He needs to be the one to step forward. Him. He needs to damn well act like more of a man than his daughter did when she was eight years old."

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 05:40 PM
She simply smiled serenely at Marcello "Do you think then that she is the only one I speak to like this? Neely is even less appreciative of it than you are, but I have never let that stop me. They live long, too long perhaps. We don't. I would wish to see changes done in months, not decades. I would not approach her if I hadn't thought me might have reached a point where they might make some connection. This is the right time, now and not before or after. Neither of them have the escape of glamourie. Neither of them have the face they fear in front of them. This couldn't wait."

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 05:48 PM
"That, I agree with," Marcello answered. "That is what I told her after you left. What I want to know is why, if you really speak to him, if you really understand what you're meddling in, she still went to him. A true friend would have mde him go to her."

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 05:51 PM
"Because I know that he would not. I spoke the truth before, he fears her and what she might mean to him. He has had centuries to set himself in his ways, she... not so much. I am afraid that in this, I had more faith in your Lady. Perhaps that makes me a worse friend." Her smile was tight-lipped but soft.

"And I think that is the one vulnerability he has. Even the strongest wall breaks down if you hack at it insistently enough. That is how I got through in the end."

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 06:05 PM
"He's still a coward,"Marcello said quietly. "Men who put up walls like he has are always cowards. There's no strength in never risking yourself, no courage in always being so certain. What was your family like?" he asked, as naturally s if it followed the train of thought exactly.

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 06:15 PM
"I do not dispute his lack of courage in that department. As for my father, he was a trader who always had these grandiose ideas. Plans to expand the business, to get rich. He failed of course, leaving my mother and us without any money. My mother was... a mother I suppose. I never had much rapport with her, I was sent from home when I was not quite ten." There was a faintly sad smile there, and she shrugged "I suppose it was a happy home. But I left it too soon. I have been traveling since, learning things. Maybe that's why I am so insistent on this. He has a chance to get some manner of family back. I don't. They are all gone now."

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 06:33 PM
"My mother was a Venetian whore," Marcello answered. "At least, I suspect she was. She took in laundry, too. My father is an English scholar, who came on an academic tour. I met him when I was five. He was drunk. I thought it was because they always said Englishmen couldn't hold their liquor. His problem was more that he was always holding it. I always hoped my parents might actually marry eventually. My father did, to another Italian woman, who was only seventeen when I was eight. I went to live with them when I was twelve and had two little sisters. So I got my family when I was a little older than you lost yours. Niabheara had a happy family. And then she found out that her parents weren't her parents, and instead she had that."

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 06:40 PM
Gioia sighed, rubbing her arm a bit. "It is sad that the children are always the one caught in the middle of things. The world is cruel like that." She brushed her hand over her stomach, hesitating for a moment before she spoke again "I cannot bear children. That is why I am still an unwed spinster past my third decade. I would not make a good wife. Besides, I wander. I have not stayed in one place for more than a year. I think I sometimes likes to pretend that the people I meet on my journey are my family. Until we part again."

She gave Marcello a very fond smile as if the shift in conversation had made her happy.

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 07:07 PM
"There are some women who would see barrenness as a curse, and others who would see it as an opportunity to be on the same footing with men," Marcello answered with a respectful nod. Although if I were stuck with Neely O'Niall as a foster child, I might be desperate to sort him out, too." He smiled back at her. "Just remember that there are deep wounds between them- some of them physical- and talking isn't going to heal them, even if it's a step on the way. He needs to behave like a father. Call her by her name. Protect her. She's already bargained with the Puck once to shake off one of his curses, and this last? Is entire his own doing. A father would do the bargaining in his daughter's stead."

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 07:14 PM
"I suspect I see it as both. I could not do what I do would I be tied down with a child. it would be too cruel. So I relish the freedom, but at the same time..." She shook her head, running a hand through Giles' hair. "I do not think that they will heal fast either, I am just interested in that first little step. That's how you travel after all, step by step. They just have a longer road than most. But I have faith in them. I will hope you might have the same, at least to the extent of not sabotaging things. Oh, and do you think she would like to be called by name? It would not be considered too false or intimate? I am afraid I am not certain of the customs there at times."

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 07:28 PM
"I wouldn't sabotage it," Marcello replied. "But I remain concerned by the danger she invites if she is close to him. She would- She would approve of anything he does that acknowledges that she is more to him than a pawn on a chessboard, or a business associate with a common interest. He doesn.t use her title out of respect or pride. When I call her my lady, it is out of joy that she is, in fact, my lady. When he calls her by an honorific, it's to distance himself."

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 07:35 PM
"I agree with that. It is to distance himself. And yet... the man could hardly show up and talk to her as if they had never been apart, could he? A title is safer. And she commands respect, I have felt that myself. She is a very hard woman to talk to in confidence, she is very much the Countess. Or perhaps that is just because of my association with her father." She sighed, shaking her head. "They are so alike at times. So very stubborn."

Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 07:47 PM
Marcello snorted his agreement. "If not for her sister, I think she would mirror him in everything she does. They are alike in much more subtle but more telling ways than that."

Then he laughed. "I have been at ease with her since the second time we spoke," he answered. "The only time I have felt the need to be formal has been through no fault of her own. But I see her do it to other people. She's- she's tried it with me, but it doesn't work as well when your first encounters are more personal and intimate. Still, he is not using her title out of respect. He uses it the same way other parents use young man or young lady or ungrateful little bastard."

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 07:54 PM
Gioia's lips twitched into a smile, she was warming up to the Queensman fast. "He has tried it with me too. I just ignore it. I had the advantage of him being very disoriented and nearly amnesiac when we met. He has rebuilt his walls since, but I refused to let him shut me out. He might be stubborn, but I am worse. A lot worse." There was no doubt there, she was not a woman that called anything quits. Not something she believed in.

"Perhaps he will learn to respect her. I hope so. For all our sakes."


Posted by: Neely O'Niall Jul 9 2008, 08:07 PM

"So do I," Marcello agreed. "She's an incredible young lady, and I say that as her employee and not her lover. Friendship, affection? I am leery of. Respect? She deserves."

Posted by: Giles Hartley Jul 9 2008, 08:14 PM
"Are you mollified at the moments about my intents? If you have anything else you want to know, I am not a hard wo... ahem man to find on the ship. We still have a little until we reach shore. Once we are there I think we have worse things on our mind. I was hoping to at least have broken the ice a little by then."

Gioia paused slapping her own cheek a little. "Perhaps you are right. Perhaps I am a manipulator. But if so, only for the best of causes."

With that she curtsied in the elaborate Cecilian style, then turned and left.