Day 091: Talking Politics
Summary: Madelyn and Ellory discuss contentious matters
Date: 28 August 2016
Related: None
Madelyn Ellory 


The Row
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August 28, 2149

It is a warm, drizzly summer evening. The sun hasn't quite set and there is still a warm glow of daylight, even through the rainclouds. Madelyn sits in the workshop she shares with Silas, totally not actually working. The door is open and she's daydreaming, staring off into the middle distance.

Ellory is walking by, having just finished doing some work, and she's hungry. She almost walks by Madelyn, before realizing that the other woman is there, and she stops herself. "Hey!" she says to the other woman, with a smile. "You had dinner yet? How are you doing?"

Madelyn jumps, startled. "Oh, hey," she says, sheepishly. "Nah, waiting for Silas. What are you up to?" The slight young woman pulls up the shoulder of her shirt. Despite being a tailor, her own clothes are still slightly too big.

"Looking for dinner, actually. I was working, but I'm off-shift for the moment, as of…about five minutes ago or so? How about you?" Ellory stops and looks at the other woman, all serious and so. Her own clothes are a little better-fitting, probably because of needing something to calm her nerves after work.

Madelyn's clothes had been fitting better after she came back from the mountain, but she seems to have lost the healthy weight she put on there. "One of the perks of having your own shop. I don't have shifts as long as I get everything done that I need to get done," she says with a small grin.

Ellory grins. "Truth!" she agrees. "Mind if I sit down?" Not that she waits for the answer, she just settles in, with a sigh of relief. "I swear, I think I've been on my feet for hours. What are you working on, right now?"

"Oh, uh… shirts," Madelyn says sheepishly, totally arranging things to look like she was actually working. "Of course you can sit. Come on in."

Ellory grins at Madelyn and says, "I'd ask if you need some help, but I'm off work and not that nice. So I'll watch for a bit." Until she can't cope no more. She stretches out her legs, and considers Madelyn. "You're looking…well, better than you were. You doing ok?"

"Me? Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. How, um, how are you?" Madelyn asks, wholly ignoring the pile of shirts and mending. "I think Silas and I have almost got this tattoo machine thing down. The problem was that we were pumping too much power into the motor. Skin is not the same as cloth or leather."

"Like…Grounder tats?" asks Ellory, curiously. "I'm ok. I think. Pretty sure. Almost positive. You going to be needling people as well as cloth, now?"

"I mean, yeah, but… better and not weird," Madelyn clarifies. If you can call that clarifying. "I mean, I guess. That really depends on how much work they plan on dumping on us."

Ellory nods, wisely, and falls silent, with her eyebrows upraised. It's a clear signal to ask Madelyn to elaborate, without actually using her words.

"I'm just sick of the Alpha people trying to be in charge again down here — no offense," Madelyn adds quickly. "But there are so many who think they're better than us by virtue of the fact that that's what they're used to from the Ark. They let Factory slam into a friggin' mountain, but Alpha landed safely. They treat workers like we're machines. I'm getting really sick of it."
(New BB message (15/2) posted to 'IC-OOC: The Coalition' by Fiona: The Next Step)

Ellory considers Madelyn, and says, truthfully, "I don't blame you. It's bullshit. Where would the people in Alpha be without everyone else making things that support them?" She pauses, then adds, "Although, out of being fair, I don't think it was a case of letting Factory slam into the mountain, so much as not being able to stop it. It was…scary on the way down, on Alpha, too." She clearly isn't taking offense.

"I think they sacrificed Factory to save Alpha. It's clear whose lives they thought mattered more," Madelyn says darkly. She seems fairly immoveable on this subject.

Ellory gives Madelyn an odd look. "Why would anyone want to do that?" she says, mystified. "We're all from the Ark. And why would anyone be so short-sighted as to /want/ to sacrifice people who know how to do what we all need? Besides, I'm not much of a mechanic, but I can't really see how that would work. Do you think people from Alpha went and took stuff from Factory to make sure one landed and the other didn't?" It's not that she's trying to argue Madelyn out of her beliefs. She's trying to understand.

"No. They knew they only had enough computing power to safely land some of the stations. They made the call. They picked comfortable bureaucrats over workers. And they'd do it again. Look who's magically in charge again now." Madelyn crosses her arms, leaning back.

Ellory looks at Madelyn. She doesn't answer, at first, then says, quietly, "And who /ran/? Who did you want to see elected? Did they run?" She shifts, clearly getting a little uncomfortable.

"I don't know. I was too busy being used as a blood filter by the fucking mountain," Madelyn shoots back. "It was a foregone conclusion anyway. The Alpha bureaucrats know how to politic and campaign because it's all they've ever done. People who've had to work for a living actually had to, you know, work, and…" She pinches the bridge of her nose. "Let's not do this."

Ellory narrows her eyes at Madelyn, and then says, quietly, "Yeah, I probably shouldn't. I'm hungry and my blood sugar is low after being on my feet and taking care of people all day. Makes me cranky." Which is probably as nice as she gets. "Silas supposed to be here soon?"

"Probably?" Madelyn shrugs. "He's… probably doing Silas things." That's a meaningful statement, Madelyn. Good job.

Ellory nods, and says, "Ok, in that case, I'm gonna go grab something to eat now. My temper's all kinds of uncertain. Pretty sure it's hunger." She stands up, drawing herself up rather straighter than she had been when she got there. "Have a good evening, ok?"

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