September 3rd, 1893 - Kieran's Flat

It was easier to talk to M when she was in his flat than it had been when they exchanged letters; they met somewhat frequently, and Kieran knew the pattern of things. He would make tea. He would put whiskey into his, and Juliana would use all of his sugar. They would talk about the full moon, and about anything they'd heard about werewolves, and occasionally about her husband or his friends. Today, though — Kieran had an extra topic in mind today. He told her it was an easier full moon than usual, and then — he pivoted.

"You met with Jude," Kieran said, forcing his voice to be as neutral as possible. Of course Juliana would have opinions on the Ministerial election; she worked there. Kieran had opinions too, of course. But there was something so straining about Juliana talking to Jude, because it meant that they were — talking about Jude running, which Kieran hated.

---

Juliana Ainsworth Fortitude Greengrass

  

---

set by MJ!

Juliana was not surprised that the topic had come up; if she was involved in any capacity with Jude Wright's campaign, she expected Kieran would hear about it sooner or later. She was surprised that it had come up so soon, thought. She'd only met with Wright the day before, and she hadn't given him any warning beforehand that she was planning to come to him. That news had traveled so quickly meant two things: first, she'd been correct in her assumption that Jude was an important friend of Kieran's, if they talked this often and with this degree of specificity; second, that her conversation the previous day had made enough of an impression on Wright for it to be noteworthy. The second point pleased her; she smiled.

"He mentioned it? Hm," she said, but did not delve into the matter farther. "Later today I'm attending the tea at the Darling house, which it seems all of the candidates have been invited to, but I don't imagine we'll have anything new to talk about by then."

---

  

---

Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Kieran hummed. "I don't think I can slip my way in there," he said. He liked to try to get into election events, for work — but a tea was hard, even if all the candidates would be there. "He mentioned it. And I'm doing all the poster- and flyer- work for the campaign, so." Kieran shrugged. It was hard to explain how much he talked to Jude, to anyone — even if Juliana knew his secret, that didn't quite cover it.

---

  

---

set by MJ!

"You could if you wanted to," Juliana said with a shrug. "It's hardly exclusive. Everyone I know has an invite." Everyone she knew from society or the Ministry, anyway; obviously she knew Kieran and he was an exception to this rule. In any case, she didn't think the hostess was likely to notice if there were a few extra heads among the throngs. If he'd shown any real interest in the event Juliana would have offered to bring him along herself — one of the perks of marriage was that she had considerably more leeway about male friends than she had before, and if someone asked how she knew him she could handwave the question away with a story about the Ministry, which would have been believable and yet too vague to be verified.

"Do you ever sell your art?" she asked, to change the subject from campaigns. She did not imagine Jude Wright was paying for the posters.

---

  

---

Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

He shrugged. He could slip in if he wanted to, but — there were so many election articles to write that he was not eager to add more information to his plate.

Art was, at least, different — even if he'd been the one to bring up the election. But Kieran made a noncommittal noise. "I think I sketch too many people I know for that," he said. He'd thought of it, of course — he'd sold his blood, of course he had thought about selling art. And yet — he hadn't.

  

---

set by MJ!

Juliana nodded, as though he had said something profound which required following introspection. Really, her mind had drifted back to an earlier point in the conversation. After a moment, she asked with a frown, "Are you doing anything else for his campaign?"

---

  

---

Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Kieran sighed. "What I've always done — going to all of his events and telling people to come to them," he said. He tilted his head back, exposing his throat to the ceiling and staring up at the aging paint. "And we talk strategy, a bit." They talked strategy when Kieran could stomach it — which was not always.

  

---

set by MJ!

Juliana nodded. It made sense, if they were close, but she was a bit surprised to hear Kieran talked strategy. She didn't know why she was surprised — he was a crime and politics reporter, so obviously had enough exposure to the issues, and he was intelligent enough to have a myriad of opinions. He was probably good at political strategy, actually — maybe even better than Wright, if Wright's reputation as being a bleeding heart focused solely on the Cause was at all accurate. In her (admittedly not bottomless) experience, empathy and strategy were often at odds with each other. That was why she'd established contact with Wright in the first place: she wasn't sure that he would take the initiative to do what needed to be done, to dismantle the competition, unless someone prodded him.

But it still surprised her to think of Kieran being involved in campaign strategy. Perhaps because he had always been a relatively private person (for good reason), and campaigning was a very public ordeal.

"I don't think he can actually win," she admitted. "Do you?"

---

  

---

Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

He looked back at Juliana and tilted his head at her. "No," Kieran admitted, tone easy. He'd never thought that Jude could win; the voters of Britain were not good enough for that. "I wish I did." It would be nice to believe in the inherent good of people like that — instead, Kieran wanted Jude to get as close as possible, and for no one to try to kill him while he was running. He quirked an eyebrow at Juliana. "Do you?"

  

---

set by MJ!

Juliana shook her head; a definitive answer, and one she didn't need to spend any time considering. She'd already thought through each of the candidate's chances, from her perspective. The only thing keeping her sane at the moment was that Piccardy didn't seem especially likely to win, but even a slim chance was more of a chance that she was willing to permit. She wouldn't stop meddling in the campaigns, through whatever vehicle was available to her, until she was satisfied that he had been quite thoroughly destroyed. With any luck she could do enough lasting damage that he wouldn't be able to run for Minister the next time around, either.

But Jude Wright had no real chance, either, as far as she was concerned. There were plenty of people who supported his ideas, but a good many of them didn't have the vote — and the ones who did support his ideas and could vote were often repulsed by the realities of those policies. It was all well and good for a toff whose world did not expand beyond the borders of Wellingtonshire to say he supported the rights of half-humans to access education, but if he ever came face to face with a vampire or half-goblin he would have recoiled. Some of them might vote for Wright, because of the theoretical; any of them that had attended his campaign events would probably find reasons to pick a slightly more moderate candidate instead.

"I hope he knows what he's doing, running," she said with a frown. "It might do more harm than good, at the end of the day. For his causes."

---

  

---

Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Kieran shrugged his shoulders; he was also not convinced that Jude was doing the smart thing, but he had not won that argument. "He believes too much in other people," he said, flippant — this was something that Kieran had said to Jude's face, so he had no qualms in saying it to Juliana.

"And we don't deserve him. But he would never actually do something to risk the cause," Kieran added, more earnest when he spoke again. "He's always thought it bigger than himself." That was one of the fascinating things about Jude, one of the things that kept Kieran coming back and which had led to his original fixation on Jude — an incredible lack of ego, and a devotion to people even if they did not agree with him on all fronts, even if they did not trust him.

The following 1 user Likes Kieran Abernathy's post:1 user Likes Kieran Abernathy's post
   Jude Wright

---

set by MJ!

Juliana hmmed, and took a sip of tea. She did not want to get in to a discussion of the causes, either with Jude or with Kieran. She was more cynical than either of them, she suspected (certainly of Jude, but it seemed to her that Kieran was more cynical by circumstance, rather than by disposition — he would have liked to have been an idealist, had his life been different). She was hesitant to put her cynicism too much on display and have to play the role of disapproving aunt, coming in to rain on everyone's parade, so it was best to leave the issues themselves undiscussed.

"The staff in the Minister's office is typically persistent," she said with a slight shrug, to indicate or so I've heard; she had no personal experience of this, since Minister Ross had hired her. "Unless I chose to leave. But I don't think I will, whoever wins." If someone sensible won, she would have to stay in order to ensure they could continue on Ross' legacy in a respectable way — it would reflect poorly on Ross if the next Minister immediately fell on his face, as though he hadn't set them up for success. And if someone else won, she would have to stay — at least so long as she reasonably could, without going insane — in order to thwart them.

---

  

---

Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Kieran nodded at Juliana's office considerations. "We need someone sensible in that office," he said — and did not (obviously) mean the Minister of Magic. "If it came down to it, do you think you could obstruct someone?"

Picardy was the worst one. But Maxime, Lupin — none of them were promising. The best Kieran could reasonably hope for was no changes to werewolf policy; and that also depended on the people in the Department for Regulation & Control of Magical Creatures.

  

---

set by MJ!

Juliana made a tsk noise as she raised her tea cup to her mouth. "I'm offended you feel the need to ask," she said, before taking a dainty sip. She was being a bit playful with it, exaggerating her femininity with the way she drank her tea to juxtapose the utterly un-feminine answer to his question. "I could obstruct the entire Ministry, if it came down to it."

---

  

---

Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules