| Details for Snide and Prejudice |
| Summary: | Arla and Lewis are interrupted by an unwelcome visitor (Cy) who feels Muggles have no place in the wizarding world. |
| Date: | 1940-03-12 |
| Location: | P & F World Imports |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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A warm shop on a cool night, surrounded by beautiful antiques and imports from around the magical world, not to mention good company! What could spoil such an evening? Well, potentially bad company! The door opens to admit a customer, which is probably normally a happy occurrence, save that the person in question is a Black. One of Clara's particular favorite Blacks, no less! Cy doesn't seem immediately in a foul temper, glancing around at the immediate vicinity with a wary sort of curiosity, but then a few steps further into the shop, he stops abruptly, regarding the proprietress with an expression of surprise that seems to be cooling rapidly into exasperated dislike.
Cy arrives just in time to hear a bit of a story that will make him dislike her even more. "No," Says Clara to Lewis with a shake of her head. "My father.. a pure blood, well, he didn't exactly understand what, ah, restraint was, and met up with a muggle woman. Nine months later I arrived, though the two parted ways. My mother abonded me at an orphange when I was to for being so strange, my father, when he found out, came and got me at nine." Abonded, that's a heavy thing, and there is a small yet somewhat sad shrug. But life is better now! Well for a second until the bell rings to alert her that someone had entered, and that someone being Cy. Looking at him shoulders slump a bit and that same look of dislike crosses her features. "Excuse me darling." Says the Prewett to the muggle and greets the newly arrived Black with as much of a polite smile as she can muster. "Can I help you?"
"That's really quite awful" says Lewis , putting a hand on her shoulder. Suddenly, a man walks in. He can tell by Carla's reaction that these people know each other, but wish they didn't. Regardless, he tips his beret to the man walking in, politely.
Cy's disposition could not be called rosy under normal circumstances, but it's plummeting from neutral to dour by the moment. "You cannot help me," he replies dryly to Clara, folding his arms. "Given that what I chiefly require help with at the moment is the fact that my otherwise acceptable life has obviously suffered a curse, wherein I repeatedly have the misfortune of encountering you. That would in fact be depressing enough, but it clearly grows deeper and more potent by the instant, as now I not only have to suffer your company, but am also burdened with knowing the sordid particulars of your origin." He glances around, irritated. "Are you truly associated to this establishment? It was recommended to me by someone I will obviously never trust again. I don't —" Ah, he's just noticed Lewis, who clearly until now was in the category of furniture and other inanimate objects. Cy studies him inscrutably for a moment, then looks back to Clara. "What is /that/ doing here?"
Clara was expecting the insults, and assumes this is how his kind talk. She stays a few paces back to, as one wouldn't want to startle the creature to much. Same thing applies to being kind, it may run, than again, that wouldn't be a bad thing. The insults to her are shrugged off as much as they are expected, and it's not that Lewis' form of comfort is ignored, he gets a small smile at it, it's however the outright rude manner in which the muggle is treated that gets that red hint of anger on her ears. "If you can't treat another human being with the same level of respect you demand, then perhaps you're mouth is best left shut. He defends his country, thus us, and you are best to show some respect." Seeing as Cy stated that she is of no help here a hand motions to the door. "That is the way out of you dislike it here so much, but if you're want something of interest, and not harmful to children, and also valuable, then please look around."
Lewis is actually rather startled at the rudeness of the man who walks in, and it shows. He was about to answer the question with "I'm here protecting the country", but Clara stole the argument out of his mouth. He frowns. He should be defending the lady, not the other way around! He says "Are you sure he'll be able to find the door, madame? It's a rather complicated journey"
Cy does sort of look around briefly at the objects closest to him, but Clara loses him at 'not harmful', which is obviously boring and incompatible with his interests and preferences. Looking up again, it would seem that her spark of anger finds an answer in the Black cloud of angry un-customer taking up unwelcome floor space in her shop. "Protecting our country?" Cy echoes incredulously. "/That/," he stabs a finger in the soldier's direction, "Is not protecting our country, Half-Prewett. /That/ is the destruction of our future. /That/ is the slow atrophy of everything sacred in this world. /That/ is the mouldering corruption of an entire race, society, and way of life. What shall he protect us with? Muggle weapons and great husks of metal and the most horrifying carnage the world has ever seen? Do you remember the last muggle war, child? They point their metal at each other now. And when they know about us, they will point them here, and every good and beautiful thing the magical world has ever known will be broken beyond the reach of hope. All because foolish children like you want to be nice, want to see respect for the instruments of disaster. It cannot be."
Oh how she would rather have the attention on her. Make fun of her half blood! Her even being around him is probably insult enough if he just knew that. Looking from the Black and to Lewis she frowns deeply, it's no way to treat anyone. "Mr. Black," says the Prewett with a edge to her tone, those big grey eyes which are normally lively are just dark like a storm. "Perhaps if your head was firmly removed from your ass you could stop talking with such an impressive level of shit." Words are calm and cool, almost to much. "It is men like -you-, with beliefs like -yours- that have ruined our society. Now the door is there, make sure it hits you on the way out."
Lewis raises an eyebrow and says "Oh, really? Would you rather the Germans were here?". He crosses his arms, he's about to bring up the horrors of the Magical World (Dementors come to mind), but unfortunately, he'd rather not escalate that particular argument. "Why don't you go to Germany? They'll love you!" He turns to Carla and says "Would you like me to escort him out, madame?"
Cy turns a fierce gaze to Lewis, addressing him for the first time. "Touch me, boy, and I will remove your hands and feed them to the creatures which walked the nightmares of your childhood." There's a hint of something feral in those words, but perhaps they were not as planned as Cy might have wanted? He pauses a moment to gather himself, then adds more coolly, "Stay out of this, you lack the ability to perceive its depth." The Black gaze then turns back to Clara, "And so, it seems, do you. Your inability to defend your point of view with anything beyond personal insult continues to be a defining feature of your character." Cy starts walking, slowly, though it's not clear whether he's on a meandering path out the door, or just making himself a moving target in the event of a brawl. "/This/ is why your deplorable pedigree is a problem of its own, Half-Prewett. A mud-blood may exist tolerably among wizards, but she still sympathizes with Muggles. You are tied to them. You draw them, with their electricity lights and their metal machines and their slavish devotion to 'industry', here into /our/ world. And you see /nothing wrong/ with it, with the fact that a man in a suit declaring his loyalty to Muggle empires is standing here in a room where the lighting fixtures are flying." Disgusted, he shakes his head, but at least his path is taking him toward the door, and there he pauses, on the cusp of leaving. "Anyone in a uniform is an extension of someone else's will, Clara Prewett, and you would do well to remember that when you finally realize your pretty magic world has eroded beyond recognition."
Clara watches Cy as he makes for the door, and she can only hope he trips and falls on his cane on the way out. He won't she knows, but one can dream. "Perhaps if you wern't to busy trying to throw your opinion above others, you would be able to see the truth in things, or at least be willing to listen. But you're not, you're stuck in your gilded cage and no one wants to let you out anyway." She doesn't even with him a good day, just turns her back to address Lewis. Upon turning away from the negative cloud of wizarding there is a sort of hurt yet anger in her eyes. Crossing her own arms there is a small nod. "Sure, darling, that'd be nice." A small smile through the annoyance of the interaction that's on her face. "Just let me get my wand and satchel."
When Cy threatens Lewis, he chuckles. "You sound like a bad pulp villain". He repeats his threat in a mocking tone "I'll feed your hands to the monsters of your nightmares! ooooh!" When Cy goes on a rant about Industry, he shakes his head "No, I've got you all wrong. You don't belong in Germany. You belong in Russia". When asked to escort him out, he clears his throat a little and walks a bit closer to the wizard. He can tell that Cy's already on his way out, and so he says "Look, it would be a real shame to make a mess out of the place. I'm sure all the stuff here is very expensive, so why don't you just leave before there's any more trouble?". No reason to start a fight if he's already on his way out.
Cy shakes his head at Clara. "It is not an opinion, my dear, it is the nature of reality. You may not like it, but you also may not like the tide to erode the shore, and you may readily discern how great an impact your preference has on the shape of the world." As for Lewis, he gets attention again! Twice in one night! Muggle record. It's a long, even sort of look, calculating and unimpressed. "If you truly wish to know what the wizarding world is like," Cy eventually comments, "Then I would invite you to come to Knockturn Alley sometime, to see the sights and meet the locals. I will introduce you to the aforementioned creatures, and you may decide for yourself what manner of villain I am." He glares a moment longer, then produces a hat somehow from one of his voluminous sleeves and settles it on his head. "Good day to you," the Black issues a terse farewell, and then disappears out the door. It closes behind him, and as soon as it's shut, the room seems warmer and brighter.