Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 18)

(Let's do Shea! I've got a meeting with a professor but after that I can bring them in.)

(Sounds good! Rana will be pouting in her room if the servants left. If not a corner of a library or something where she can be mostly alone. Good luck with the meeting!)

(Shea probably won't knock on Rana's door but they might be in one of the libraries or in a smoking room or salon)

(Oki library it is, then!)

Rana was fed up. With Father. With the servants that still swarmed her room like ants in a very, very unwelcome colony. She’d gone back long enough to get her stupid wig and makeup off and then went and buried herself in the deepest corner of the library to sulk, hoping Father didn’t send anyone after her. She’d gotten gradually more relaxed the longer she was there, until Lia happened past her to warn her about Father’s military plot, and got her worked up again.

Now she was folded into a little ball in the corner, knees pulled to her chest, a book open though she wasn’t reading it. There was too much to think about. Obsess about.

Shea Ennen was looking for their snuffbox; they'd left it in one of these chairs or on an end table, but they'd be damned if they could remember which. They bustled about, huffing to themself as they bent to look under the chairs and between cushions. They were dressed in a garish duckling-yellow gown today, complemented by light makeup on their powdered face. Their customary ostrich feathers wobbled atop their high wig as they searched.
"Dang and blast," Shea muttered, straightening as the sixth chair yielded nothing. "I know I left it somewhere."

Rana heard them and considered leaving but was afraid they were too close for her to slip away unnoticed and decided to just ball up smaller and hope they didn’t notice her as they looked for whatever it was that they lost. She wasn’t in the mood to have to pretend to be pleasant.

(Looking at the Discord again they look kind of shallow but generally decent maybe? Like they might be somewhat sympathetic? Trying to gauge how fake Rana would be lol)

(They're definitely sympathetic to Rana. They're not shallow by any means but they really really like material goods. They generally tend toward neutrality in Reputation votes; unless they feel strongly about a particular issue they go with the majority. So not a good leader but a nice person)

Shea stumped into Rana's area next, shuffling around some pillows on a seat nearby before noticing Rana and jerking back a little. "Goodness!" They flipped out a set of half-moon spectacles styled like opera glasses and peered at Rana through them. "I spy a little Gowan nestled into the cushions. You look as if you'll sink into that armchair, m'dear! What ails you?"

(Think super rich eccentric grandparent/aunt or uncle.)

(Gotcha. Nice)

Rana tensed at their reaction but forced a little smile. “Hello. How are you?”

"Pissed off," they replied promptly. "Can't find my snuffbox anywhere. Perhaps you're lying on it?" They took a step forward, prodding the chair with their cane.

Rana stood up and moved some pillows to the side to look. “Mm… I don’t see it…”

"Hopeless." They slumped down on one of the other chairs with a heavy sigh, raising a hand to steady their wig. "What's your excuse, then? Why are you hidden away in this dusty corner?"

Rana hesitated, then sat back down, deciding she liked Shea enough not to flee at the question. Not that she was going to be honest. She shrugged, gesturing at the book she definitely hadn’t been reading. “Reading.”

"Eh?" They flipped their spectacles up again. "What book's that?"

“Uhh…” she couldn’t remember what she’d grabbed — she’d known it was a decoy from the get go. She held it up so they could read the title for themself as she skimmed the innermost page for a talking point if pressed. It was a book on off continent ancient mythology.

"Ah, that seems dull." They thumped their cane thoughtfully. "Not my sort of thing at all, I'm afraid. But to each their own, eh?"