Quoted By:
>Get the deets
"...if it <span class="mu-i">must</span> be Jean... I thought she went by her last name?"
"Most commonly, yes. It makes me no difference."
"Um, okay. If it must be her, then you have to tell me absolutely everything about her. Because I don't know <span class="mu-i">anything.</span> Is she a real doctor?"
Monty sighs. "Not much more than I am."
"Meaning—"
"She knows how to take bodies apart. Shakier on how to put them back together. I needed to give her <span class="mu-i">something</span> to do." He fiddles with the cuff of his sleeve. "In my defense, she does know how to use a bandage, and it's far from an essential role down here. Seems you're either fine or you're dead, and—"
"I thought we were in hell," you say snidely. "You think people die a second time?"
"I'm not sure what else you'd call it, Charlotte. Maybe they escape. Maybe they go somewhere worse. Maybe they come right back here, as Garvin has posited to me. I wish I knew. But I can't imagine my answers actually matter that much to you, do they?"
"Just asking. Anyways, so she and you were friends—"
Monty chuckles. "I wouldn't say that. I think it's possible she considered that to be the case. I can't say I did— and that's long before any of this, to be clear. We have always been... of very different minds."
"Meaning she's a thieving jerk?" you say. "And you're merely a thieving jerk accomplice?"
"In a sense." Monty ducks his head. "She's always preferred the spotlight over me. That's one difference. She used to be very well-known back then— <span class="mu-i">very</span> well known— and it wasn't out of raw talent, though she wasn't bad. What she <span class="mu-i">was</span> was a born showwoman. She was 'the Executioner,' because she'd chop off people's heads, see, in broad daylight. People loved it. She had radio interviews and sponsorship deals out the ears, or neck stump, if you will. Zero grace. Zero subtlety. I could've taken her out fairly easily if she wasn't always surrounded by fans— they'd all take a damned bullet for her, see. Which I thought was a fairly obvious bending of the rules, but the Committee thought otherwise, and she was never reprimanded."
He's rattling this off all clipped-like, maybe so he doesn't think twice about telling you all this, but it makes it hard to follow. "She had <span class="mu-i">sponsorship</span> deals? Did you have sponsorship deals?"
"..." He sucks in his cheek. "...A few. I needed an additional income stream."
Somewhere out there in the world, there's collectible Monty merchandise. When you become Queen, you'll order somebody to search it out. For your palace decorations. "What did you sponsor?"
From the look of him, he looks like he regrets ever bringing up sponsorships, and possibly being born. "It's been many years, Charlotte, I don't have a strong— I believe one of them was shoe polish. And some variety of patent medicine. She had many more than I did, because she liked having her endorsement on things. Even back then I found the glad-handing crass."
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