folkmeme | texts from "last night" or whenever

If I had a choice of one or the other, that'd be easy. I'd take solving the problems of the undercity in a heartbeat. Naturally, it's the harder choice, especially as so many people clamor loudly for blood to pay for blood. I may be an optimist, Mr. Silco, but I doubt everyone will survive that rocket. I will do the best I can to improve upon the conditions in the undercity and to protect both cities from outside threat, all while trying to prevent them from tearing each other to shreds. I will not be able to enact some perfect solution, only the best I can manage.

While I haven't gained much information about the state of things back home, the time to pause and to think is an advantage I will not have back there, so I must make the most of it.

We of the undercity have learned to take care of ourselves; we don't require you for saving, just take the boot off of our throats. The cost will always be blood, and I have no issue paying with it. And don't call me Mister. It's Silco. Most of us will never have a family name. Duty calls, it seems.

Blood begets blood begets blood. It never ends. At some point, it needs to. The undercity has been robbed long enough. It's time it saw some of its resources return.

How do you show respect then?

That it does. It will, so long as I live.

Such an advocate you are for my city. If I had known that was all it would take, I would have requested a meeting years ago. We buy one another a drink. Otherwise, just knowing someone's name, for better or worse, carries some respect. No one wants to be in obscurity.

[He'll wait and see about how driven she actually is.]

I care about both cities, but of course you wouldn't know how simple it was back there. I had to play everything far closer to the chest.

There are plenty of establishments here in which to drink. People certainly know your name, Silco.

We all have to play things closer to the chest if we want to make progress. Everyone has their dirty part to play. Are you offering? Hopefully they know it for all the right reasons being the simple industrialist that I am.

I doubt I could have gotten that vote five years ago, even with the same amount of violence.

I am, though not for a simple industrialist.

You didn't have hextech five years previous. The Council had more to lose by their prize being weaponized. Then for whom?

I am against Hextech being weaponized, but that wasn't my commentary.

For the revolutionary who wants to see his people's lives improve.

All technology is weaponized eventually. Best to have a handle on its creation otherwise it will be taken from you.

Appealing to my ego? The rumours about you do not lie.

I have considered that thought, but one does not change the world by accepting every maxim as true.

It's also what I respect most about you, so I thought it only best that should be the side of you I buy a drink for.

So you work against tradition yet remain an opportunist. Alright, I'll bite. A drink then. Name the time and place.

I am both an idealist and a realist. Pragmatism need not be the enemy of change.

Cutting Edge in Wintermute. Tomorrow at 8 pm.

The most dangerous type of politician. So eager to meet me. I'm flattered. I will see you then.

Such a compliment.

I see no reason to delay. We never know how much time we have.

[ The next evening, Mel arrives at Cutting Edge five minutes til eight, dressed in her typical fashion despite the cold of Wintermute, with only a warm cloak added to her attire. She removes it immediately and offers it to the staff to hang up while they get drinks. ]

[Still gathering his bearings with the new environment and unwilling to allow himself to be caught unaware in a new drinking establishment, Silco had arrived an hour early. He wanted to watch the patrons and know where all the exits were in case he had to slip away for a quick escape; it was such a common behaviour in the undercity that he thought nothing about it.

He was in a seat in one corner of the room, an empty tumbler with melting ice in front of him and casually smoking one of his few remaining cigars. The ambience was dark enough that his red eye provided a soft glow as he observed everyone coming and going from the watering hole. He wore his regular clothing including coat.

Of course, he had a description of everyone from the Council thanks to the late Sheriff. He would have known her based on her normal finery even if he never had a description, and he lifted a hand to advertise his presence. After all, he doubted anyone from Piltover knew who their 'friend from downtown' was, as he liked to keep it. The less on their radar he was, the easier to operate as he pleased.]

Would you prefer I call you Miss Medarda or some other title?

[ Mel's not surprised that Silco arrived before her. She's been here before and is familiar with the establishment and everything she wants to know about it. Further, in the unlikely and she believes out of character situation that Silco chooses to escalate their first meeting to violence (there's little he gains from that), her magic is a card he doesn't know about, one she's used against a version of him Thirteen created in a trial. Mel, Jayce, and Viktor defeated him together as a team then, but this Silco is Silco through and through, not some monstrous version from a trial.

Thanks to that trial, Mel knows what Silco looks like, and she recognizes him when he raises his hand. She comes over to his corner, his safe spot with no one behind him out of view, and sits at an angle from him, not directly across. They aren't enemies. They don't need to be. ]

Silco, good to meet you after all this time. Miss Medarda is fine.

[ It's the title both she and her mother use by default, warlord and politician. Titles can matter, but in this situation, it's about developing a relationship. ]

[He eased back into the chair that he was occupying as she came over to the table, observing the way that she moved and the position that she took when she eventually seated herself. She was well put together, as one would expect given her station and what he assumed to be part of her upbringing.

That she sat at an angle to him allowed them both a view of the room. She didn't fight the position that he put her in where he had his back safe, and she also gave the appearance being comfortable doing so. He brought his cigar to his lips and took a long drag, tapping off ash into the tray near his elbow.]

Is it? That is not a welcome I am used to by any stretch.

[People, once they knew him and had a measure of what he was capable of, did not enjoy meetings with him generally. Business was business though. He blew smoke from his nostrils.]

It appears that we are here at the whimsy of a fox god. It is interesting how it always turns out to be someone or something claiming to be a god.

[ Mel and Jayce's first fight was over the fact that he went to Silco to make a deal behind her back. Jayce thought it was too dangerous for her to meet Silco. Mel thought it was foolish he went alone when she was the stronger negotiator. His deal was not the one Mel would have negotiated, were it up to her, but once it was on the table, it was the only viable option for peace. They worked it out, but it only demonstrates how seriously everyone takes meeting him. Mel takes it seriously, but she's truthful when she says it's good to meet. The connections need to be built between Piltover and Zaun. She must meet the leaders of Zaun as they are, not the leaders she wishes they would be or would choose. ]

Perhaps the people you meet need to gain more confidence in themselves.

[ And the ability to back it up. The follow through is important. It hardly hurts that they are outside Piltover and Zaun. If anything, being the one longer in Folkmore, Mel has the advantage, but it is not a strong enough advantage to set things terribly on edge. ]

Thirteen does not claim to be a god herself, though some of the spirits here worship her as one and many people have assigned the label. It's become common place to discuss her as a god, though I personally wouldn't use that term.

[It was a shame that Marcus had died before being able to report to him about how the sister and the Councilor's daughter had presented the facts of Zaun. It was even more of a shame that he hadn't heard how he had been presented because he would have agreed with the pair's assessment. However, he had not fought his way to his position to squander opportunities regardless of his personal feelings on someone else. Everyone had their use. His interest in the Council of Piltover extended as far as amnesty, free trade, and the ability for Zaun to govern itself.]

No doubt, but it's difficult to find people that are truly comfortable in their own skin and abilities. I'm not here to coddle anyone if they can't straighten their own spines.

[Silco rarely made a promise that he wasn't willing to keep, which had made him very effective and allowed people under him to know where they stood with him. His enemies were given less freedom of movements, and he was more content to bury them. Still, information was a valuable currency, and she was in the position to pay in it. What she might haggle in return remained to be seen.]

Neither did Janna, but she remained a patron goddess of Zaun. However, anyone or anything with the power to drag people from different places, times and versions has the power for considerable damage as well.

[ Mel remembers the=-0 first-hand description of Silco, a violent crime lord who hates the Council, its members, and everything they stand for. He can loath her all he likes. He still agreed to sit down and talk with her. The night may even prove him willing to do so peacefully. The very fact she represents the powers that be that have choked Zaun is why he would meet with her.

Mel will do what it takes to forge peace and a better future. Silco's far from her first violent leader to deal with. ]

Coddling can be as much a disfavor to someone as brutal honesty.

[ Nearly anything can be weaponized. That's part of the problem and what's led them both to where they are. ]

We do not know the limits of her abilities, but they are vast. As much as the magical power to complete those acts is the less flashy amalgamation of knowledge that Thirteen has of each and every one of us here. Only someone who's dead, such as yourself, knows as much about his own life as she does.

[ That's a little misleading, given Thirteen knows far more about everyone in Silco's life than he does, which leads to her understanding more about him. About all of them. ]

[It could be suicide not to meet with someone who had as much political clout as she did whether she was employing those skills in wherever here was to begin with or not. Anyone that knew anything of his reputation was potentially dangerous to him, and he would prefer to assess the playing field before he made his move to establish himself. He would establish himself, but it was a matter of direction and discretion.

After all, what did he have to lose? Nothing.]

Brutality is far more effective, but it has the side effect of rebellious thoughts. Coddling makes people soft and gluttonous.

[He leaned back in his chair, lifting a hand towards the bartender for another single malt whiskey. He expected that she could make a request for herself if she was interested in a drink of her own. She didn't seem the type to risk sharing.]

Hmpt, knowledge is power. [As much as flashy powers and brute strength could awe, he did not enjoy the idea of his secrets - and there were many - were known. It automatically moved this Thirteen up his list.] No doubt such power is used for an opportunity to allow us to find our potential, hmm?

Yet our choices are no simple binary. We can choose to what degree we are brutal and to what degree we coddle. Even when people are brutal about where people stand with them, there is plenty of political maneuvering and battles.

[ Her mother and Silco have some characteristics in common, ones Mel doesn't agree with. Their brutal honesty isn't the problem. The violence and its use as the supposed most efficient and effective means to their ends. That's the problem. Mel understands that as powerful as Silco is, he lacked the power of Piltover, and violence from below is a sign of problems that need to be addressed. They'd festered longer than either of them have been alive before they came into their respective positions. It makes it that much harder to truly cure. ]

Exactly. It is entirely to help us, as she sees we need it. A push. A nudge. Nearly always with other people. You cannot expect all your secrets to remain in your possession.

[ It's a piece of friendly advice. How Silco decides to use it is at his discretion. Sometimes sharing a smaller secret can stave off being forced to share larger ones. Sometimes, it's a matter of choosing whom to entrust a secret with before the choice is made for you. Mel does not expect to be high on the list of people with which to share any of his secrets because she is one of the few people here with the context to understand them, though perhaps less than Viktor or Vi. ]

There's not need to preach to me about degrees of brutality and coddling. One doesn't rise to our positions without being aware of when to apply one or both when necessary.

[They were products of their upbringing as much as they wished to distance themselves from that fact. His own upbringing had brought him to this point, the rise of his empire after toppling the defensive stagnancy of Vander's one. He would do whatever it took to free Zaun, regardless of the people he had to sacrifice for that cause...

...or so he thought. In the end, he had been as weak as his brother. Brutality had brought him far, but love was where duty died. It was where he faltered.

It was why her information - like a warning - caused a small narrowing of his blue eye. He sat back in his chair, considering the implications; he was a very, very secretive man and was not keen to have those secrets dragged out of him. He would resist, which likely would cause her warning to become dire in his case.]

Not all, but the important ones will remain where they are. No one parts with their secrets willingly. [Silco did not, as a rule, have friends; he had allies and acquaintances.] Though, are you suggesting that the fox's idea of potential hinges on us humiliating ourselves to someone else at the very least?

[ Mel raises a hand to place an order and inclines her head. It still benefits someone to see multiple political playgrounds and styles, various means to success in those around them. There's some variety in Zaun. What she knows of it before Silco's rise speaks to that. Yet there's more to the world than Piltover and Zaun. What has life in some other dimensional prison been like for him? Another brutal place? ]

They wouldn't be secrets if someone did not hoard them, at least for a time. [ Mel sees his point. Though her largest secret in Runeterra, the one she most closely guarded from her own mother, from the other councilors, from even her own lover has become no secret at all in Folkmore. It cannot be used against her the way it could back home. Her mother cannot try to make her a weapon, and people do not hate magic here the way they do in Piltover. It won't see her exiled. Not again. In time, Silco will learn it too should he stay. It's common enough knowledge. Mel doesn't part with it, however, because it still has value between them so long as he doesn't know. ]

However we feel about it, I believe she sees it differently—more like our potential lurks within us with our secrets, so only by bringing them to light can we bloom and grow. More selfishly for her, this place exists on Lore, something generated whenever we interact, and the deeper the interaction, the more Lore it creates.

texts from "last night" or whenever

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omg your mel is so goooooooooddddddd

eeeee thank you, love your silco

<3 <3

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oops my dog got in on my last tag

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