A Tool in Her Hand, A Blade at Her Throat

*Being a series of scenelets relating to Gertrude Crossman's proposal for Tamzen, and Tamzen and Xander's efforts to make the best use of the time they have bought by seeming to agree to it.*

## Scene Information

### Participants

Tamzen Shaw
Xander Crossman

## Content Information

The moon had risen, and Arsling had transformed. Duty to their friend done, Xander and Tamzen had left the wooded trails and driven back to campus, only to realize that they had far too much adrenaline to return to their rooms and try to sleep. When Tamzen suggested a walk through downtown, Xander had agreed.

They had wandered together through the nearly-empty streets, seemingly at random, turning first down one street, then another as their feet guided them, Tamzen sharing stories of growing up in this town, tales of places no longer in existence, and childish shenanigans best forgotten by parents.

Eventually, they ended up at the public park, its playground a collection of the rusting death traps that promised either exhilarating fun or a trip to the clinic for a booster shot or a plaster cast. They strolled along the gravel paths, as the shadows around them danced under the flickering lights.

Tamzen sighed and sat down at the edge of the merry-go-round, hands behind her for support, legs stretched out in front as she looked over at Xander. “Sooo...what the *hell* are we going to do now?”

Xander laid himself out on the grass looking up at her.  “I… I honestly don’t know.  She’s going to try and mold you into a new her, and that’s fucking terrifying.”  He breathed in deeply, and let out a hefty sigh.  “So let’s talk about what we can’t do first.  We can’t lie to her, she sees right through that shit.  We can’t run from her, she’ll absolutely make good on that promise to track us and make our lives hell.”  He rolled over onto his stomach and looked her in the eyes, hands supporting his head.  “Oh and we *definitely* can’t let her have exactly what she wants, obviously.”

Tamzen looked down at him, expression thoughtful. The merry-go-round *creaked* as she pushed with her feet, rotating the surface a few inches in one direction, then a few inches in the other. “Obviously…” she agreed. “But, we do have a few things going for us…” she leaned forward, elbows resting on her thighs as she counted off on her fingers. “First of all - we’ve bought time. She’s not dragging you away from MHU and all your friends, and as long as she thinks she’s getting what she wants, she’s not going to be in a hurry to change that.”

“Second, I think I managed to convince her that pushing the two of us together was likely to scare you off, so at least for the moment she’s not going to be breathing down our necks about our relationship.”

“Third… the more she tries to mold me into a duplicate of herself… the more I learn about how she ticks. And that’s very dangerous for her, because…” Tamzen held up her right hand, palm out, thumb tucked in and fingers spread. “Fourth - she’s the kind of person that maintains control by keeping her own secrets and leveraging other people’s. And with just a little bit of practice…” a fierce grin lit up her face. “I’m going to be *much* better at it than she could ever dream.”

Xander, closely listening to her, gave a sharp nod with an amused grin.  “I absolutely adore you, but you *terrify* me sometimes Tamzen.  She’s not gonna know what hit her.”

## Scene Information

### Participants

Tamzen Shaw
Gertrude Crossman(NPC)

## Content Information

A long limousine rolled to a stop in front of Night Falls Town Hall.  The man in the driver's seat got out, his massive frame barely able to squeeze through the door.  He towered above Tamzen as he moved past her, opening the back passenger side door and motioning for her to get in.  “Good afternoon Ms. Shaw, if you’d please… we do not want to keep Chairwoman Crossman waiting.”

“A little disappointment might be good for the Chairwoman,” Tamzen muttered, quietly enough that the driver could pretend not to hear, as she obediently slid into the back of the vehicle. She glanced out the windows, only to note that they had been blacked out. *Paranoid witch, doesn’t want me to know where I’m going…* she thought, as she slumped back against the seat and stared up at the ceiling.

The ride itself was uneventful, Magnus remained silent the entire way over, and there was nothing of note inside the limo to focus on.  Eventually they came to a stop outside a plain looking one story house.  They were far from the center of town, only a few scattered buildings were even visible.  The driver once more opened the door for Tamzen, and motioned for her to approach the building.

Tamzen exited the vehicle, and took a moment to smooth her skirt back into place, before turning to the driver and giving him a smile. “Thank you, Magnus,” she said, grateful to note that her voice was still calm. She turned and moved briskly up the walkway to the house, stopping to rap firmly on the door. *Deep breaths, it’s only a few hours. I mean… you managed to impress her for 15 whole minutes last week, how hard could it be?*

A bustling came from behind the door as a high pitched voice called out, “Be right there!”  A few seconds passed, and Tamzen heard multiple locks being undone.  Finally a short middle aged woman in a suit answered the door.  She gave Tamzen a sharp smile, “You must be Ms. Shaw, the chairwoman is expecting you.  Come, follow me to the den.”  Before Tamzen could react the woman had grabbed her hand and began dragging her through the home, forcing the girl to hurry to keep up.  It was very plain and simple, really nothing of note aside from the two maids hurriedly cleaning and cooking in the kitchen.

As they arrived at the den the woman stepped from in front of Tamzen, released her hand, and bowed in the direction of a large armchair which was presently pointed out a window.  “Mrs. Crossman, Ms. Shaw is here to see you!”

Gertrude rotated the chair to face them, and gave the woman a dismissive wave.  “Thank you Ms. Potts, that’ll be all.”  With that the woman scurried away, as Gertrude gave Tamzen an… inviting smile.  “Ms. Shaw, good to see that you came.  I must say, you put yourself together… decently… for someone of your class.  Please take a seat.”

Tamzen inclined her head in a polite bow of acknowledgement - *no matter what this woman thinks, she’s* not *a queen, she’s* not *your employer, and you’re* not *going to kowtow or kiss her ring!* - “Thank you, Madame Chairwoman,” she replied, taking a seat in the chair that seemed most obviously placed for her use. Right away, she could tell that was a mistake - despite its high-quality appearance, the chair was stiff, and the back too high for comfort. She carefully resettled herself on the edge of the chair, ankles crossed, and hands resting in her lap.

Gertrude rose from her seat and made her way over to Tamzen.  She began circling the poor girl, looking her up and down, her eyes focusing on various different points.  After a few rounds Gertrude nodded her head, and gave a *tsk*.  “You poor thing, did they never teach posture in your household?”  The woman grabbed hold of her shoulders and began pushing ever so slightly.  “For one, straighten out that spine of yours, if you slouch even an inch those bastard’s will think you’re some slack jawed idiot.”

Tamzen bit down on the inside of her cheek, refraining from giving voice to any of the catty remarks that came to mind. She straightened up, silently letting Gertrude guide her into what the  woman considered proper posture.

Once she’d managed to straighten the girl, Gertrude went about correcting other minor posture issues.  She pushed a finger under Tamzen’s chin and lifted her head slightly, stuck her foot between her ankles to separate her legs, and grabbed her hands from her lap and put them to her sides.  When Gertrude was satisfied she gave a small sigh of relief.  “There we go my dear, that’s how you should always carry yourself.  I know these may seem like minor adjustments, but each one carries with it an added air of dignity.”  The woman circled Tamzen and laid her hands on the girl’s shoulders, turning her slightly to face a mirror set just to the side of Gertrude’s chair.  “This, the respect you show yourself and your body, is what will keep vultures at bay.  Any weakness and they’ll tear into you, criticize you, belittle you.  But, if you exude confidence, and give them nothing you can control to criticize, then their avenues for undermining you suddenly evaporate.”

The old woman leaned in beside Tamzen’s head, and spoke softly as the two stared into the mirror. Tamzen thought she saw an echo of past pain in Gertrude’s eyes, and considered her thoughtfully - it couldn’t have been easy to be a woman like Gertrude, intelligent and ambitious, back in the days when women we expected to be neither. And yet she had not only survived, but thrived… perhaps there was something to be learned here after all.  “You carry yourself like this, and you’ll find so many fewer people will question your decisions.  Not just in the boardroom, but in everyday life as well.  Now if you combine that fierce attitude you showed me at Fantasie with this posture, and of course,” Gertrude gave an icy glare into the mirror.  “The proper expression to accompany all of it… well then you’ll truly get results from those around you.”

“Trust me,” the chairwoman released her shoulders and slowly walked back to her seat, “I’ve been in business long enough to have seen just about all of it.  All the sexist pigs and ‘well-to-do’ proper folks who’ll turn on you in a heartbeat the second they smell blood.”  She sits back down in her chair, picking up a glass of wine and sipping from it.  “I won’t have them doing that to you once I’m gone, that’s why it’s important you learn how to carry yourself now.  Any questions Ms. Shaw?”

Tamzen shifted in her seat until she faced Gertrude again, careful to keep to the proper posture, eyes thoughtful. “No, but…” she hesitated a moment, then regretted it - Gertrude would consider it a sign of weakness. She squared her shoulders and continued. “I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for you… taking charge of the business when you did. Is it really still so bad?”

Gertrude’s expression, which had softened slightly as she spoke, became absolutely rigid.  “Of course not you foolish girl, not for me it isn’t.  You’re young, inexperienced, and clearly ignorant as to how higher echelon business is handled, they’d eat *you* alive.  I’ve always been a step ahead of fools like them, and like you.”  She took a long drag from the pipe that sat on the table next to her.  “And for another thing, don’t you ever try to muse at how ‘difficult’ things must’ve been for me.  It may have been a different time, but *I* was the same as I am now.  I certainly don’t need any twenty something trying to, gods forbid, *sympathize with me!*”

Gertrude rose from her chair and thrust her pipe in the direction of Tamzen’s skirt.  “Now, on to the topic of your absolutely insufficient attire, I mean *honestly* how you think it’s in any way an acceptable way to present yourself is beyond me…”

## Scene Information

### Participants

Tamzen Shaw
Xander Crossman

## Content Information

It was a crisp evening in Night Falls, the birds chirping and a light breeze blowing.  Xander, released from the hospital just that afternoon, was sat on a rock near the base of the path leading up to WKDN.  Though his shoulder had healed he still looked dreadful, needing to use crutches to move about.  He would’ve gone all the way up to the studio, but he thought better of it looking at the way.  Besides he was still exhausted and filled with pain killers, he was probably over exerting himself by even being at the path in the first place.  Regardless, he knew he wanted to surprise Tamzen for her birthday, and her gift had arrived in his mailbox during the week anyways.  It was a perfect way to give her birthday wishes and send her on her way to work that night… or at least he hoped it’d be perfect.  After everything that had happened recently, she deserved a little perfect.

Tamzen was… exhausted. She hadn’t thought she could be more exhausted than she had been last weekend, but somehow… she was. Between school, and work, and the increased pace of Gertrude’s lessons, and trying to find time to visit Xander, and her own… ‘experiments’... she was quite honestly starting to run out of hours in the day.

*It’ll get better soon*, she promised herself. *Once the damned party is over, we’ll have some breathing room again. The semester will be over in a month or so… and I’ll be able to catch up on sleep.*

She took a sip of her coffee - far stronger than usual - and continued walking. She was so distracted by that line of thinking that she nearly walked past the person sitting on a rock near the studio. Tamzen halted in her tracks and turned around, eyes widening in surprise.

“Xander? What are you doing here? I thought they weren’t sending you home until Sunday.”

He leaned up from his rock, a grin on his face.  “Well, I got released early.  Figured I’d come say hi.”  He got up onto his crutches, moving over to stand in front of Tamzen.  “Happy birthday sweetheart.  Sorry I’d hug you but, still getting used to these.”  He moved around on his crutches a bit, giving her a sheepish grin.

“The crutches, and… y’know… the broken ribs…” she said, looking him over carefully. “You’re going to be worse to keep tabs on than Linny, aren’t you?” She carefully wrapped one arm around him and squeezed him gently. “I didn’t expect that you’d remember, the way you got your brains half scrambled this week. Thank you.”

“Brains scrambled or not, I wouldn’t forget.”  Nuzzling himself into her, he gave her a light kiss on the forehead.  “Don’t worry, I won’t go too far.  I’ll probably spend most of my time in my room, resting like I should-”

She gave him a look. “Now, why don’t I believe you?”

He gave her a sly grin.  “Hey now, I can be a bit reckless, but I won’t risk my health now.  Besides,” his tone shifted to a more joking one, “I can’t die, I have shit to do!”  Giving a nod towards the rock.  “Anyways, you should go check the rock.  Got you a little something.”

She turned and looked over at the rock, spotting a neatly wrapped package, complete with hand-tied ribbons. She stepped over and picked it up looking at him questioningly. At his nod of confirmation, she stepped aside and waved him over. “Come sit back down, while I open this up,” she urged him.

He followed, gently setting himself down on the rock.  He looked at her excitedly.  “It’s not much, I just hope you like it!”

“If you’ve done anything to my truck, I might still call this whole thing off,” she teased, as she sat down on the ground in front of the rock, and carefully started to unwrap the present.

“I haven’t done anything… *yet*.”  He gave a thoughtful look.  “Though maybe…”

“I have *already* been lectured about *my* damned truck once this week. You’ll have to wait your turn.”

“Fine fine, I’ll lay off it for the moment love.”

With a slightly-too-hard tug, Tamzen managed to loosen the bow and the ribbons unraveled. She slid a fingernail under the edge of the wrapping paper, breaking the seal of the tape, and pulled it aside, causing a small sheathed object to fall out at her feet. She reached down to retrieve it, a curious smile on her face as she admired the hand tooled pattern on the black leather sheath. The handle was cut from some sort of scaly wood, cast in a cloudy resin. She carefully pulled the knife out of its sheath… and her breath caught. It was a knapped stone blade, made out of a glassy stone striped in shades of purple, green and pink. “Oh...Xander…” she whispered, her voice awed. “It’s…” *just like the one I saw in the Archive,* she thought, a shiver of anticipation running up her spine.

She looked up at Xander and smiled. “Xander. It’s *perfect.*”

He blushed heavily.  “Well I’m glad that you like it sweetheart.”  *Oh shit… it’s obsidian… right…*  “I uh, figured it’d be something nice to have.  I don’t think when I got it I knew just how appropriate it’d be though.”  He ruffled her hair a bit.  “Regardless, happy birthday Tamzen… I love you sweetheart.”

She patted his good knee affectionately. “I guess that’s how we know it was meant to be mine,” she murmured, her eyes sharp as she turned the blade over and examined it.

He slowly rose from the rock, propping himself back on his crutches.  “Anyways, you’ve got a show soon.  You should probably get going eh?”

She blushed and popped up off the ground, offering him a hand as he attempted to steady himself. “Now I feel guilty - if I’d known you’d be back on campus, I’d have called off tonight.” She glanced over at the clocktower on the building across the street. “I still could, if you wanted me to… I certainly spent enough time there last weekend.”

He gave her a light kiss on the cheek.  “No no, babe you should go do your show.  We’ll have plenty of time this weekend to go d-” Tamzen cleared her throat and gave him a stern look.

“Plenty of time to stay in and watch a movie or something!  Yeah… that’s what I meant!”

“Better,” she said, her face remaining serious for another moment before she laughed and gave him a kiss. She tucked the knife in her jacket pocket and hurried up the path towards the station, stopping at the doors to turn around and wave at him one last time before disappearing inside.

He waved back, giving her a long look as she went inside.  Turning, he leaned up against the rock and sighed.  *Gods… I hope I didn’t just do what I think I did.  Oh well… at least she’s happy for now.*  Pulling out his phone he dials up a number and waits a moment.  “Hey… yeah I’m ready… thanks Magnus.  I promise she won’t find out.”