Ardalion: *laughs loudly like a hyena* Now the fool speaks! Finally he does! Biding his time like some kind of snake, always trying to find a weak spot to attack! No wonder no one likes you! Just like your mother. Always looking for something to criticize. You and your mother were never good at making people around you feel comfortable. Perhaps that is why you two have always failed to make friends and connections.

Andrei: Enough, you old, mange-ridden dog. Kuzka does well enough with us. He has clear sight, and he discerns what's rotten and what's decent. I'll say he's better than you and I. At least his hands are clean from blood and his mind is free from what we've thought of. And better yet, he hasn't done what we've done. That is, if you REALLY served in the army, as you claim you did.

Ardalion laughs even harder.

Ardalion: If you really know Kuzka, as you call him, he could tell you all about me and my experiences in the army! Let him speak for me! But of course he'd start slandering me even more.

Andrei: I'll be the judge of that, whether Kuzka slanders you or not. I'm in the army just like you- except I actually do my duties and break my back. You, seem soft enough that the higher-ups gave you an equally soft job, you old dog... *narrows eyes in an irked manner*

Ardalion: Soft, huh? How ridiculous! Why do you claim that I'm soft? *downs more drink* you don't know what I've gone through in Turkestan! A soft man couldn't have taken that!

Andrei: Depends where you stood, or in your case, sat! *huffs in a deep grunt*

Ardalion: Anyways, this is a bit of a bore. I'm running out of things to say. All you do is try to make me seem like a fool. What am I, some kind of clown?

A real sense of hurt can be heard for a while in his voice.

Ardalion sighs and downs his drink again and wonders about the time. He wonders if he's overstayed his welcome.

Lera: Perhaps you'd do better seeking more pleasant company, Ilya- after all, I warned you, dear fellow, we're all glum here.

Ardalion: Yeah, I think this is far too boring. I think I'm leaving. I've wasted enough time here, with my idiot of a son glaring at me and thinking I'm trash. *emotion creeps into his voice, being drunk, but he still pushes it back and becomes serious again* I'm leaving!

Ardalion stands up and marches out of the room and leaves.

Mirka: *raises slightly, trailing Ardalion with his fixed eyes on the departing man in uneasy suspicion* His departure might not bode well for us- how do we know he won't dash off and report this? *voice is an airy whisper, barely audible.*

Kuzma: It's fine. He's drunk. He might not remember our meeting at all. Let alone remember who we are. I mean, besides me, he didn't know anyone here.

Mirka: Still, I trust he won't intrude on us again...

Kuzma: I'm sure he won't. *he looks a bit stiff lipped and disturbed by Ardalion's appearance and now departure*

Kuzma sighs as he thinks about his father's sudden appearance and his offensive verbal attacks on all of them, especially himself.

Andrei: Well, enough on him. *glances aside at Kuzma in concern masked by his usual default glower*

Kuzma: *sigh* We'll get back to the programme shortly. But before I say anything else, I'll just mention that yes, that was my father--that's the kind of man I had to deal with for so many years. He's ruined me and my mother's life. I swore from an early age I would be nothing like him!

Lera: I suggest we split our little party here- perhaps Kuzma, you can sit with Andrei, while Tkachenko and I sit with Polya, and Anya? You and Mirka sit together. Perhaps if we split like this, it might divert attention we've garnered because of your father, Kuzma. *raises brow in the general direction of two men sitting across the room who staring intently at their table*

Kuzma: Sure, sounds like a good idea. I wouldn't mind it.

Kuzma turns to face Andrei.

Andrei: Well, we're stuck with each other's company, I see. This is unexpected. I'm rudderless without Mirka or that Lera spieling off, so the conversation is all up to you, Kuzka.

Kuzma: It's alright. Sorry, am I making this super awkward? Andrei, I apologize for my father suddenly coming in on us like that. That was very unexpected. He is a fool, like I said. Can I confide in you things about my father, if you don't mind?

Andrei: *nods and begins to light a cigarette to show he will listen intently and openly*

Kuzma: my father has always been a tyrant, to say the least, a vicious, angry man who lives on stamping on others. He's a brute, and I know it from seeing him all the time. Despite all of that, however, I must say I feel a lot of empathy for him. Especially recently, now that he's lost so much. His career in the army was his whole life. He tried to force that on me too, trying to hold up the army as some kind of ideal career that all of us had to aspire to. He was always going on about my dead brother and how my oldest brother no longer even talks to him. He is a sad man, Andrei--he wants to be a father to us, but he has no receptive audience. He's broken. And it's all because of ego and Fate. He just had to lose his position and now is slowly being consumed by paranoia.

Kuzma looks down and sighs, thinking about his own paranoia and how just a week ago, Commissar Daskevich had pulled him aside for a brief 'talk'. He feels just as cornered as his father.

Andrei: *watches Kuzma, his scowl lessening into a trace of understanding*

Andrei: It's good you speak your mind on what your father really is. This is what this sort of life makes men into- it makes men hard, sucks them dry like a salt bog in the summer drought. Pride doesn't help it, either. I can see he's raddled with his own ego like it's some disease.

Kuzma: There's more. I fear that I may be becoming just like him. Andrei, the same kinds of men who he says are going after him, may be coming for me as well! I'm not kidding you! *he manages to choke this out, barely audible*

Andrei: Keep your voice quiet, Kuzka. You have a spine, for sure. But take care to keep alive- don't be so focused on seeming brave you get your flanks cornered.

Kuzma growls at Andrei and then silently nods, finding him to be in the right.

Andrei: I misjudged you before, Kuzka. *takes a drag of his cigarette and exhales* Seeing you at first, you seemed like some upstart, fresh from the academia halls. Then you told me of your experiences, and I'll admit, you're tender, but there's a bit of hardness in you that'll keep you alive.

Kuzma: That's true. I just hate it--the idea that people look down on me. You look down on me, don't you, a little bit? I'll say I just don't care what people think anymore. I just need to survive. And maintain the love of someone I cherish very much, but am afraid she does not return my feelings. Can you believe, Andrei Danilovich, that I have fallen for a woman who had once slept with my father of all people?

His smile is wry and odd, like he's thinking about a dream that's tarnished by something nasty.

Andrei: Well, tell me- you probably look down on me, don't you? Seeing me, you assume I'm savage, right off the steppes? Or does the uniform fool you, too? A good woman is rare- who cares whom she slept with?

Kuzma: I don't look down on you, sir. I do hold you in esteem. I never judge anyone for their station in life. I would know better not to. And she may be a good woman, indeed, but she may make foolish choices. And I have made even more foolish choices.

Kuzma sighs and drinks a bit.

Kuzma: I think it's a lost cause. She doesn't deserve someone like me, even if in the past she had been stupid enough to even get pregnant by my father.

Andrei: You're not flattering because you're intimidated? Flattery will rile my temper even more.

Kuzma: I guess I'm in no position to judge anyone, however. No, I'm not flattering anyone. I'm just telling the truth. I'm not intimidated by anyone or anything.

Andrei: Every soul is allowed to sin and pine about it later. You have no right to judge, as you said.

Kuzma: *shrug* true. I spoke too soon.

Andrei: You're not? *looks impressed, slightly moved* That's good, don't rely on flattery in life.

Kuzma: I don't rely on flattery. It's fake. But I wonder, Andrei, if this woman is really as great as she appears. She seems to be weak of mind and easily influenced. And I may only love her because of such qualities, I fear. I think she is a tender soul, and I love her more for it. Is this wrong? Is this judging her negatively? I wonder...

Andrei: Good. You have more sense than your father, then. Your father, he just chases after girls and plays with grass widows. I know his type. But maybe... well some men desire something else. They try to find it in many beds, hoping something will work, like the right gears in place, but it doesn't. So they pursue another woman. I confess, I've done the same too. I think I was more wicked because I did it for a sense of power.

Andrei: How can you judge her? Judge her own mind?

Kuzma: You're right, I can't. I'm too much like my mother...My mother judges a lot. She has said a number of things about this woman already.

Andrei: You would do better to find a stronger woman. I know you men up here don't like such a woman, but god, you need such a woman.

Kuzma: I grew up hearing so much, and I wanted to reject my mother's assumptions entirely, but I know I'm still influenced by her.

Andrei: Women need spine and brains, because often, we men lack brains.

Kuzma: My mother is a strong enough woman.

Kuzma laughs.

Kuzma: She's the type who'd glare at you from across the room and you know she's going to have a harsh critique of you afterwards. She's pretty intense.

Andrei: So I hear! *smiles in mischief* But she manages her business, well enough, doesn't she? She kept bread on the table and roof over your head, did she?

Kuzma: Well, my mother's single. Would you be interested? *he smiles*

Andrei: No, I dislike fair-haired women....

Kuzma: Is there anyone you fancy right now?

Andrei: *eyes narrow in a sideglance, trying to seem cool* What of it? What if I have someone? What does it matter?

Kuzma: *a bit confused* what? I was just curious. Alright, I won't ask. I thought we could just share since I already told you I am interested in someone.

Andrei: Hmm- you'll have to forgive me. Socialability isn't my strong suit, at least not in this setting. I do have someone. She's remarkable because I think she has a deep soul and a strong head on her shoulders. She sounds different from your muse, Kuzka.

Kuzma: Perhaps I'm being too harsh on her. So this woman, is she your age? In her forties or so?

Andrei: Perhaps! *tsks* *launches into a slight reverie*

Kuzma: Is she around my mother's age?

Andrei: No, she's a bit younger, about late 20's, I wager. She has these remarkable green eyes, like a cat's! And her hair, well, it's like a tale come true. But it's her face. You can see her soul on her face. She has such a sadness about, mixed with hardness. She reminds me of a sad loon crooning sadly.

Kuzma crosses his arms and smiles at the description.

Kuzma: Loon, huh? I guess it's a common surname, but I know a family with a loon-related surname. You can see her soul on her face? *laughs a bit* Really? That sounds pretty cheesy. Maybe you should've been the writer, not me, Andrei Danilovich. You could be a writer of love sonnets or whatever, maybe a bit like a modern Pushkin.

Andrei: Ah, not that common, is it? Well, must be more common that my name. Nonsense! Some people wear their souls on their faces. She does, anyway. Me? Write? I can barely hobble together some letter of report for my superiors. I just think of people and places like a song. That's why I like verse- verse is just songs that aren't sung because some people have no voice to sing with. That's all. Ah, she's remarkable. She sticks out in my mind. She does, really.

Kuzma: Come to think of it, the woman I'm thinking about is in that age range as well. Huh, how odd is that! So how did you meet this woman? At a bar or something?

Andrei: What? You don't find a woman like her in a bar! No, we met on the train. It was cold, and she in mourning. I don't what else happened, but we crossed paths, and she stuck out to me.

Andrei: You know, she has freckles too, reminds me of spots on a loon, too...

Kuzma's brow wrinkles in surprise. There are so many coincidences popping up now.

Kuzma: Hm, interesting. And you said she had green eyes as well...Could it be...? Never mind, it might be someone else I know.

Kuzma tries to hide what he had just said previously about his muse, realizing that if they are both indeed talking about Katya, Andrei should never know that he was saying negative things about Katya.

Kuzma: Well, there is another woman I like and I even am friends with, and she happens to have a lot of the traits you've just described...

Andrei: Well? What of it? Does your woman have green eyes too? I doubt she's anything like this woman I speak of. She has a spine of oak, and has a hardness to her. Women, like men, can be similar. But you weren't so glowing in your admiration of your woman. She sounded like soft-minded, little meek mouse who couldn't let the butter melt in her mouth.

Kuzma hangs his head.

Kuzma: Well, maybe I'm just being too judgmental, like my mother. I'll try to look for more positives in her. She's very adaptable, and she's quite clever and eager to learn. She's someone who loves her parents dearly, and has a warm heart. This is despite her flaws--which we all have. I'm not condemning her for flaws. Heck, I have flaws.

Andrei: *takes another drag of his cigarette- but pauses abruptly in mid-drag when he hears Kuzma mention the woman being close to her parents and being adaptable as well. It sounds like his devushka, the formidable Katya.* Good luck on winning your woman, Kuzka. She sounds rare and very good.