RP:Witch Side Are You On

Part of the Larketian Fault Lines Arc

Summary: Pilar runs into Tychus, who is having a secret, witch-related meeting after putting up flyers for a pro-democracy protest. After a tense exchange, he presses her to declare her allegiances, and she declares for the resistance.

By An Abandoned Warehouse in Larket

It's late. Tychus is wearing a black hoodie and jeans and is slapping posters on poles and the sides of buildings in 'downtown' Larket. These posters provide all the details for a pro-democracy protest, all the reason for Tychus to be going about his work with efficiency, avoiding conversation.

Pilar had heard there was an abandoned warehouse in the area where pro-witch meetings were being held. She wanted to see these people for herself, see what she would be working with. She too was wearing black, though her reason was mourning, not stealth. She came across one od Tychus's posters and looked at it. A protest? Good. But... It was all about democracy. Where was the outrage over the treatment of witches? Pilar turned away from the poster, scowling.

Tychus is stopped mid-plastering of posters by someone he knows, evidently, a woman in all black, who traces a symbol into the wall of the warehouse they're conversing next to. Evidently witchcraft is afoot: they both disappear, inside, for a couple minutes, and when Tychus resurfaces, extruded from the wall which reverts to being a regular wall, no door, nothing, he's alone. He throws a furtive glance both ways down the street and, seeing Pilar, slowly straightens his posture, assessing her. Would she tell?

Pilar watched the event with wide eyes. Bingo. She swallowed and took a few steps toward Tychus. Their last meeting had been brief, and she wasn't sure he was who she thought she was. She looked up at the warehouse, then at Tychus. "Um..." She hesitated. She had no idea how to go about this. "N-nice... trick." Smooth.

Tychus' hand is at the hilt of his knife, and he continues to appraise Pilar with hawklike intensity. On his end, it's unclear that they're allies. No reason to trust a stranger. "You didn't see that," he says, in a tone that's meant to intimidate. "It would be good if you forgot about it." A flicker of recognition crosses his features as he recalls their prior meeting. This woman... "Important things are at stake, maybe you understand," he adds.

Pilar's eyes went to the knife. Obviously a man who had something to fear. She looked back at him. "Important things... Like the witches? I want to help them." Boom. There it was.

Tychus' threatening consideration of Pilar wavers in the face of this declaration. His body language softens, though he remains cautious. "OK," he accepts what she's said. "But do you really want to help them?" he asks, in a low voice. "Would you do what it takes? Stand up to the crown?"

Pilar considered his question. "Are you asking me if I would hurt them?" She didn't know if she had it in her to do so. Even though, with each passing day, they seemed to grow crueler. Hildegarde had shown mercy to Balgruuf. Macon, at least, deserved to rot in prison for life. Josleen... She still had no idea what to think of her anymore.

Tychus watches Pilar's eyes as she re-states his question. She doesn't say no. She hesitates. That hadn't been what he'd asked, anyway. He considers her, as a silence swells between them. He again looks down and back the darkened road. They shouldn't linger here overly long. "I'm asking you if you're in or out," he does his own form of re-stating the question.

Pilar took another moment to think before she nodded. "I'm in."

Tychus reaches into his pocket and withdraws a business card with only an address on it, nothing further. "We meet here on the third Wednesday of every month," he says, handing it to her and watching her gaze flick over the words, internalizing them. His gaze briefly holding Pilar's, he knocks on the wall out of which he'd appeared once more. It opens, revealing a hallway, and he steps into it, vanishing without a goodbye.