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Regina stood at the window, watching all the trolls leave. All except Zindel, whose shoulder she had firmly clamped a hand on as the others had left. Any who turned their heads back got a wave, until they had all passed out of sight down the street. She had sensed that a few of them wanted to talk more with her about various agendas, but she had reminded them all that she had one too, and right now it was booked, and that their enthusiasm was great - but needed to wait just a little bit longer, until she had a spot free in her schedule.

Turning back to the considerably emptier room, she leaned on the sill and smiled at the redblood. It was unfortunate, she felt, that she had to work with such a damp wheat-based chew tube. Unfortunately, he was the exact demographic that she was trying to get a better read on. "Alright. This'll be easier with just the two of us now, and no judgy greenblood waggling his shame globes all around the table. And while I get that you ain't exactly Mr Talky, I'd appreciate it if you make an effort for me so this can prove useful to us both." She gave him an appraising look-over. "I mean, I'm really doin' this for you and your type. So forthcoming honesty and verbose replies are really the best thing you can give."

A hand waved in dismission at the redblood's first reply. The day she'd let some lowblood into a position where they could begin to threaten to overtake her, wasn't one that she could imagine. At the thanks, she stepped forward to close the gap between the two a little. "Anything I need you for, yeah? I already told you. I want your opinions. I want your thoughts."

Drawing up slowly in front of Zindel, she began to twirl a finger in her hair idly, looking him up and down. Pitiful and deferent. A proto-Odette, who hadn't yet been recruited to more revolutionary political ideals. She could see it, in so many ways. "I wanna know why you were at my party, what made you want to go, what you thought about the whole shindig when you were there. When you made What's-His-Face flip out with your writing, if you planned that. If you knew the blueblood would step up for you? I mean, if it was me, I would have. So I assume that it's the same for others... but I wanna figure it out from your side. If I do, maybe it'll help in gettin' trolls like you interested in society, rather than in causing trouble in the streets." Letting go of her hair, she spread her hands. "No toe steppin' nessecary."

Listening to Zindel's rambled and fragmented reply, the empress couldn't help but snort quietly at it. 'I was scared and the blueblood told me' seemed to be the extent of why he had shown up at her private event. Hearing that the girl was his supposed 'manager' did again draw another link with Odette. The same kind of dependancy on a higher-blooded troll. However, it was a bit laughable. She'd never heard of this troll in any sort of capacity a an entertainer, so a fat lot of good having a manager was doing him. At least Aandes - a troll she would not trust farther than she could throw him - was decent at getting a troll's name out.

Rubbing her hands together, she gave a shot at summarizing the lowblood's scattered thoughts. "So you did what you were told because what's her face, Chiara, told you to. And you don't think about other trolls or stuff like that because Chiara never told you to do that?" The tone wasn't accusatory. At most, it was restrained and neutral in an attempt to hide any hint of mockery. As far as Regina was concerned, this was lowbloods in a nutshell. Self obsessed was an understatement - left on their own they'd just sit on their rears and whine until their voice went out.

"Not much help?" Regina grinned. "Hey, you've already given me some ideas!" It wasn't a lie. The vague suggestion of 'offer more opportunities' was a joke - there was always room in the army for a troll looking for work. The problem was motivation. Every successful lowblood, it seemed, had a higher-hued ally behind prodding them forwards. What she needed to do was take that dynamic, and bend it to a more useful final purpose than dancing on stage and shaking a leg. Tapping her fingers against her leg, the empress looked away from Zindel, her eyes taking in the wall behind him for a moment. Of course, the highblood mentors would have to be screened - no use turning her own propaganda machine into a tool for other agendas. Her attention snapped back to the redblood, and she reinforced her smile. "So you're a dancer, huh? In some kinda troupe, or at a theatre, or what?"

"A few fans, huh." Small fry, with little to no platform. The blueblood, Chiara, was probably pocketing whatever minor income she could scrape off him, while putting the minimum effort into finding him gigs. On one hand, it was depressing that she got this, while the mutant got Odette. On the other hand, if her reports were right, and she played her cards well, she'd soon have both.

Scratching her chin, Regina looked thoughtful for a moment, as though the idea was only just striking her. "Well if you don't got much on your plate, then I might have an upcoming gig that might be up your alley?" Might was a slight understatement, but she felt confident enough that the project would go through. The tealblood working with Odette was, from what she'd seen, very keen to bring her into public sight. He'd be smart enough to leap at any direct offer from the empress herself. "I dunno if you're allowed to accept gigs yourself, or if that's violatin' any kind of contract you got going."

Reading and writing. Honestly. Regina could have folded up laughing at the kid. What a prize specimen. It was all she could do to resist asking him why he never bothered to fix that, ''had the blueblood not told him to work on his basic life skills''? "Oh yeah, real intense clerical work. Just sittin' at a desk all day processing reports filled with lonng words. Cuz you seem so at home with all that." The long pause after those words were accompanied with a big, obvious wink to signify the joke, in case Zindel was as slow with spoken words as he was with written ones.

"I can see why you need a manager. Gee wiz, I get that you ain't a big thinker but maybe you should keep stuff like 'reading and writing is hard' to yourself." Turning to look at Zindel sidelong, she raised a hand to her mouth to hide the smile. Maybe the empress could have worked a little harder on keeping her amusement to herself, but really. If he was gonna say things like that, he was certainly used to the responses by now. "Kinda paints you as a bit of as easy mark."

"Right, right. I know. Just giving you fair warning first." Turning away, Regina walked over to a cabinet against the wall. Pulling open a drawer, she dug around in it. She had tucked everything away together, but made a small show of gathering it all up. Once satisfied, she returned to Zindel, waving a few different sized scraps and sheets of paper. "Since you ain't star of the schoolfeeding group, I'll tell you what the gist of this stuff is - instead of you embarrassing' your poor lusus further."

Firmly deciding that was the last crack she'd throw, for now, Regina turned her focus from getting her kicks to business. The first piece of paper was what looked like the prototype of an advertisement. Pinned to the center of it was a professional studio glossy of a troll - everyone's favorite heartthrob, Odette. It was presented to the redblood, giving him a good look at the photo. "You ever laid your gander bulbs on this fine specimen before?"

Word on the street. Did it count as that if it was something that was openly admitted as part of her marketing? The poor misled lowblood, so tragic. Etcetera etcetera. She supposed, in a grudging way, it was a clever way of getting over the problem - just barrel through it, wailing 'but I didn't mean to'.

Regina watched Zindel as he spoke. Was that admiration? It wouldn't do to send him in if he was going to immediately tumble head over heels towards Odette, and happily enter into any attempts made to flip his loyalties. There was a reasonably high chance, with Tagino's blood colour, that he'd side with the redblood star and her ambitious manager eventually. She just needed it to take long enough for her to get some use out of him first. "Yeah, that's Miss Cygnet. She's gonna be staring in a play that I've got drafted up specifically for her. Figured it would be good to head her and her manager off before they got snapped up by someone with eh, conflicting interests. I mean, the poor girl's always wanderin' into unsavory company, isn't that the story?"

Leafing through the pages, she pulled out another. This one looked like an advertisement, torn from a larger sheet. She had intended to hand the entire bundle to the redblood and watch his face as he went through them. Now, thought, she wasn't sure she would be interested in watching a grown troll struggle to read a casting call. "They've already started advertisin' for the other roles. I dunno how great you are at singin', but there are spots for trolls who just do dancin' and stuff. Does this sound up your alley?"