this world has lots to offer

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

Who: Margaret, Koios, and Maleficent
What: Koios wants to have a little talk with a certain fairy.
Where: Margaret's place
When: September 27, 2010
Note: I don't recall if we decided who was going to post this log, so I'm just putting it up. There's no rush for tags, Mabry, just do it when you can. :)

Koios frowned at the door. He wasn't sure if this was the place or not, but it was worth a shot, he supposed. He wasn't stupid, after all. It was just asking to be Dusked if you went to Jagannatha without some damn good news after revealing who he was, and he was hoping to take care of that here and now.

A shudder ran through him. He hadn't really wanted to give that sort of information to the Refugees in the first place, but after he'd thought it through, he'd decided that it was the best course of action. Jagannatha wouldn't see it that way, however, and he knew it. Jagannatha only saw his way of doing things, and everything else was wrong, unless you got lucky. And man, was Koios ever hoping to get lucky.

Well, as much as he could hope for it.

But that was something he'd have to deal with later, he reminded himself. Now, he had an entirely different sort of danger set before him - that is, if he could get things to work out the way he wanted. If Margaret had been keeping up with things on the Refugee's internet community, she'd know exactly who he was. And hopefully, the sight of him on her doorstep would be enough to lure out the Mistress of Evil herself. If not, well. He'd find a way to speak to her.

He knocked and stood back to wait.

Comments

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Margaret frowned at the knock on her door. She wasn't expecting any visitors. She didn't have them often, and most of them came to the tiny herbalist's shop she had set up to make ends meet, not to her private home. She looked through the peek-hole nervously, but did not recognize the person standing on her doorstep.

She hesitated for only a split second, then opened the door. "Hello. May I help you?"

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"Hey. I hear you're a friend of Miss Song," he said with a smile. "My name's Koios, ma'am. I'd like to talk to you, if you don't mind."

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"Oh." The name is familiar. Margaret takes a nervous step back. "Um, I suppose that would be alright."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"Great. I, uh." He hoisted a bag. "I brought some tea, if you want it. Figured I should at least bring you something if I was going to stop by unannounced. There's all kinds, so you can pick whatever you want. I'll even make it for you, if you let me," he said, flashing a smile as he stepped inside and looked around.

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"That would be . . . nice." He was the first person other than Song to visit her home, and Margaret was not sure how comfortable she felt about him being there. But she gestured him towards her kitchen. "I'm afraid my place is a little small."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"S'alright. I imagine a small place like this works just fine for the two of you," he said mildly, setting the bag down on the counter and turning to look at her. "What kind of tea would you like?"

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Margaret looks confused by this statement. "There's just one of me. I don't have a room-mate. Janet is back on Mirror Earth. With the babies." There is a hint of sorrow in her face now. "She doesn't answer my e-mails." She glances at the bag. "I prefer herbal teas."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

Koios tried to put on a sympathetic face for her as he started to prepare the tea. "That's too bad. What kind of a friend wouldn't even do that?"

Not that he cared.

"But you know, you really shouldn't lie to yourself, Miss Margaret. You may not have a room mate, but I doubt you could live alone even if you wanted to. And no matter how normal you might pretend to be," he said quietly, looking her straight in the eye, "Maleficent is still in there, isn't she?"

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"The kind who's afraid," Margaret whispered. She collapsed into a kitchen chair. "And, no, of course, she isn't gone. We are two sides of the same coin. I am no more whole than she is. She is the darkness she made herself become . . . and I am the part of her that she locked away. I expect that only the final death could make us one again . . . if even that." A small smile played about the dark-haired woman's face. "But for the moment she is gone. I have had no sign of her, not so much as a bad dream in the past six months. I make it my policy to enjoy these times as much as I can, so in a way you are wrong. This apartment is mine. Not one inch of it is hers. And so long as she is gone, I am normal."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"As long as there is someone to remember her, she will never be gone." He set a full teapot on the stove to heat up. "Besides, the way I hear it, you wouldn't know if there were any signs of her or not. She's a sneaky bitch that way, isn't she? And I doubt she'd just stand by while everything that is hers is being threatened."

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Margaret cocks her head to the side. "Sometimes there are signs. Bad dreams. Or I miss bits of time. And sometimes she changes my lj icon. And, if she doesn't decide to make me forget, I remember . . . sometimes what she does, if she lets me see, or being shut away. But sometimes she makes me forget it all. That's what happened last time. She took over for several months. And then I woke up here in Twilight Town with no memories of any of it. But . . . I don't think she could do things without me knowing, we're too much integrated for that, I'd at least know that time as missing. Or she'd have to be very careful: only do things when I was deeply asleep and then shield my dreams very carefully, because when she's active, I usually have nightmares."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

What little patience Koios had was wearing dangerously thin. Jaw set, he forced himself to focus on the preparing the tea cups for when the water was ready. It wouldn't be a good idea to threaten the woman, he told himself firmly. She would undoubtedly tell the Refugee kids. Unless, of course, Maleficent took complete control, like she had in the past.

The possibility was tempting.

"And what sorts of things would cause her to become active? It would have to be something extremely important, right? I can't imagine she'd waste her time, otherwise."

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Margaret shrugged. "When she has something that she wants to do. She always knows what is going on, even when I'm in control--I don't always. And only she decides what that is. I'm just as glad she's decided to be inactive recently. She's rather horrible."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

The tea pot whistled, and he very deliberately poured the water into the cups, offering one to Margaret. This visit wasn't going the way he'd planned; he had to find a way to get it back on track.

What to say, what to say...

Keeping his eyes on the tea in his cup, he asked, "Do you think she would want to make a deal with me?"

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Margaret frowned. "I really don't know. I don't know her mind. But why would you want to? No one ever gets the better end of a deal with her."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"Because my nonexistence is at stake," Koios replied flatly. "And emotionless or not, I prefer this to absolute nothingness. So I need to talk to her."

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"Oh, my!" Margaret looked around nervously. "Well, I think she's aware of most of what goes on around me, so she's probably listening now . . . I guess, if you told me what you want her to know, it would be kind of like leaving a message, only she's screening her calls, so then if she wanted to she could jump in and talk to you." Only I kind of hope she doesn't, Margaret thought miserably.

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

He frowned down at his tea, once again restraining his urges to just summon his weapon and threaten the woman until Maleficent complied. But if he knew anything about fairies, that was a dire insult, and she'd be even less likely to join him than before.

"My... boss wants to form an alliance with her," he said finally.

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"What kind of alliance?" Margaret asked, her head cocked to one side.

*WITHIN*

Laughable, Maleficent thought. What could they offer her?

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"An alliance of power," Koios answered, keeping his expression carefully neutral as he looked at her. "He offers her power, control over Heartless and Nobodies, and more."

That was something he knew he couldn't discuss with Margaret. She was much too close to the Refugees to share that sort of information, and even if he did manage to strike a deal with Maleficent, it would get him destroyed. He could be reckless sometimes, he knew, but Koios liked to think he wasn't stupid.

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"But she already has control over Heartless," Margaret pointed out. "I'm not sure about Nobodies though."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

He sighed. "There's more to it than just that, but I'd have to talk to her directly about it. Telling you would probably get me killed just as quickly as going to my boss with nothing."

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Margaret nodded her understanding. "I'm sorry, but I don't know how to make her come out." And I'm not sure it would be a good idea if I could, she added silently.

***

Maleficent listened absently. So far nothing of sufficient use of interest had come up to merit her making her distant presence known.

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

...Well. Jagannatha was going to destroy him if he went back empty-handed, anyway.

"He wants to destroy the Key Bearers and their friends," Koios said quietly, "and tip the balance in favor of Darkness. He says that anyone who gets in his way will be destroyed, as well. But he thinks Maleficent is admirable, one of the greats, and he would be honored to be able to call her an ally. And once the order of things is reestablished, he promises to repay her in full: she will have a world of her choosing to rule, and whatever else she might like. That is, as long as it's a reasonable enough gift for him to give."

His eyes turned cold. "And if you, Miss Margaret, are to tell the Allies of Light anything about this, he will see you destroyed."

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Margaret's eyes darkened, and an aura of threat came into her slender body. Inch by inch she seemed taller, and then the laughter that rang out certainly did not belong to Margaret.

"Destroy the Keybearers and their friends? A world of my choosing you say?" Maleficent looked at Koios with amusement. "I appreciate his condescension."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"Jagannatha doesn't intend to insult you," he said, suddenly more at ease now that Maleficent herself was here. "The way he sees it, not extending an invitation to you would be the bigger insult. As the First Darkness, he wants to honor all of those who make use of his presence, and you are by far the most prominent. And he's not planning on telling you what to do, either; he would leave you to your own devices, for the most part. He just wants to start an alliance with you to take them out of the picture and so Darkness will rule the worlds instead of Light."

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"The First Darkness? Really. How intriguing." Maleficent pondered this for a moment. "One would expect the First Darkness to be more imaginative, but then I suppose if you are the First, then innovation is hardly necessary, is it? Plans to turn the balance are all very well, but the forces of Light have more than proved themselves capable of answering such straightforward plans. Trust me in this, a plan to destroy the Keybearers will never succeed. Their allies . . . perhaps, but even in such an instance, more subtlety is required than so facile a plan as turning the Worlds to Darkness by something so straightforward. Whether I will ally with you, I cannot say. There is too much I do not know about your intentions or means."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

He shrugged. "Everyone has a weakness to exploit. He is more than capable of finding the Keybearers' and turning that against them." Not to mention that his plan isn't so straightforward as you might think, he added silently. "And what, exactly, would you like to know?"

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"Hmm." Maleficent studied Koios thoughtfully. "You are the one who came to me. It is upon you to say such things as might convince me to be interested, not for me to help you in guessing them."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"Our intent isn't to destroy those of the Light," he said carefully. "Doing that would throw the Worlds into chaos or outright destroy everything. We just want to get them out of the way, like they did to Jagannatha, and we have already begun our operations. He's still regaining his strength after their attack in - what did they call it? The Dream, or something? - but he's still strong. And I know he'd agree to give you any assistance for your affairs as you want, if you want any at all. I don't expect you would, but the offer stands."

He looked down into his cooling tea thoughtfully. "And I think you could easily negotiate the terms of an alliance, Maleficent. The offer of just a world was enough for his weaker supporters, but I know you have more dignity than all of them combined."

(actually the Maly/Margaret account, I'm just too lazy to sign out)

[belegwen.livejournal.com]

"Hmm. Flattery." Maleficent sniffed. "My willingness to ally with you is dependent on my faith in your chances of success. And given that the goals you claim have already changed within this conversation, I have doubts as to a great deal. Unless you provide me with sufficient details to assure me of your potential for victory, I am more inclined to observe as I have, watch you fall as others have fallen, and then resume my own attempts at my own goals with my own allies."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"I mean it," he insisted. "Those idiots we had back on Alexandria" - the mere memory of that fiasco made him want to hurl sand at someone, or better yet, glass - "proved that the lot of them are incompetent fools. They couldn't even keep the Princesses of Heart restrained. You, however, have already done it. But that doesn't matter anymore; if Narissa's calculations were correct, their power should be weakened by now, anyway."

"As to our plans..." The cup had gone cold. He set it down absently, taking a breath to get his thoughts together. "The Keybearers and their allies are not pure of Heart as the Princesses are. They have Darkness in their Hearts in addition to the Light they wield, and that makes them a little more vulnerable to exploitation. If we tread carefully enough with them, they won't even realize what's happening, and that will make it easy to dispose of them. There is the chance that we may not be capable of destroying them like we'd prefer, but we will be able to trap them and the Light, thus getting them both out of the way. Jagannatha has finished part of the preparations for it already. You see, Maleficent, we'd like to destroy them, but we're prepared for that not to happen. And besides that, destroying the Keybearers and their friends does not destroy the Light itself. The Light is the top priority here. They're just in the way, and we're going to make that a non-issue.

"And besides them," Koios said with a little laugh, "just think of the worlds. They have Hearts of their own, you know that just as well as I do, and that means they are subject to the exploitation of Light or Darkness, just like anyone else. Jagannatha's already started working on them, too, and I'm here to help spread his influence, as it were," he said with a wide gesture. "You remember those weather phenomena, I take it? I don't know much about it myself, but Jagannatha's told me it was something about the worlds' way of fighting and trying to get rid of him early on. Now that all that's stopped, it means they're running out of strength, and that's why those creatures are waking up - the Refugees call 'em summons. They're a last ditch effort to fight perceived threats against the worlds. But, uh, they probably could have gone with some better guardians, because they're not chasing us off. It's quite the opposite, in fact.

"Anyway, as some worlds fall, and others turn against them, the Keybearers will have nowhere to go to get away from us. And that's when we'll lock them all away, and the multiverse will be ours." He leveled a stare on her. "That is, if you decide to strike an alliance with us. If not..." A shrug.

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

"Intriguing," Maleficent allowed. "Our plans do seem to have some . . . convergence. Very well. I do not know what help I can provide, nor am I certain as to your chances of success, but if your goals can give me what I require for mine, then such assistance I can and choose to provide will be yours."

Now she smiled coldly. "For you see, here is what I require for my own goals. I need a corrupted Keybearer. Aid me in this endeavor, and you shall have my assistance."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"Great," Koios said with a dark smile of his own. "And I know just the one."

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Maleficent raised a curious eyebrow. "Indeed?"

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"Indeed. I'll have him to you as soon as possible. 'Til then, good luck with your plans." He offered no further information before disappearing into a Dark Corridor; there was no point in revealing something that could be perceived as weakness. They didn't need this supposed alliance to turn against them.

[lefthandedsidhe.livejournal.com]

Maleficent tapped her fingers thoughtfully on the table. There was clearly much they were not telling her. But if they could provide the most difficult component of her latest plot, then this alliance could be worthwhile. Later on perhaps they would be a distraction when the key moment came. She could not help noticing that they had not yet asked anything of her. What did they think to gain from her? Until that question was answered, the true future of this alliance would be uncertain.

Still, no matter, she must inform the Academy of Shadows of this newest development.