ᶾ 003 ; network (audio) | @taken for granite

[rumorate]

[She's very careful. She wants to make sure that this is just between the party, and not leaked out to the higher ups.

Well. It can be leaked out to the higher ups, but not until they decide what to do with the information first. If she sounds tired it's because she is but she knows that what she's handing out could be dangerous if told to the wrong people.

That's why it needs to be handed out carefully.]

For those of you considering going to town to make deals with the necromancers, be careful and whatever you do, don't give them your blood. If you've already given it, then be careful who you piss off. It's giving them pretty serious leverage over you that they will sell to the highest bidder when you make someone mad. And contrary to what they try to sell you, it doesn't have to be your blood. It just has to be a living donor.

[Which means putting someone else in bad shit, but well, she doesn't care about some other asshole. She cares about the people here who are trying to get home not getting fucked over by creepy wizards.]

Also, about the man that allegedly poisoned everyone? He was in Macaluso's custody the day of the poisoning. But given the way things are being handled here, I would wield that information very carefully.

[The lines are open for questions, though she will have to tap her brother for information on the poisoner stuff. She didn't actually see that one.]

Comments

[rumorate]

There's a quiet little cafe away from the palace. They have a back room I've used for some of my matchmaking appointments. We'll have privacy.

[She sends him the address and a time. She'll need a little space to make sure she isn't being followed by any of Vannozza's men, thanks Diego for making her paranoid.]

Give me a half-hour?

[inferus]

Take what time you need. I will see you there.

( And true to his words, he is there, waiting outside of the cafe for her, wearing impeccable clothing as always. He likes enjoying the sun when he has the chance so he is pressed against the outside of it, letting the rays hit him- the light and its warmth a far cry from Hell

which hasn't seen the sun in a very long time. )

[rumorate]

[The one benefit of having masks is that people don't have faces to go on. Allison can change her look, dress herself a little more down, change up the kinds of masks she wears, and it's almost as though she's a completely different person. In this particular instance, her look is more subdued and less elaborate, allowing her to go by practically unnoticed.

After making a few extra turns to make sure she loses any tails, she arrives at the front door and waves. She's not really sure what to say, so she settles for what keeps things moving forward:]

Are you a coffee or tea person?

[inferus]

( Wrath is not accustomed to human food. It was only with Emilia that he tried a cannoli for the first time, and he was surprised at the taste of it. He has since had human wine as well, but he can say nothing of the beverages she mentions. So instead of answering, he answers with a question like the prince of hell is accustomed to doing when he is deflecting. )

Which do you prefer?

( He follows her inside, surveying her, curious to see if he can sense anything about her body language, about her emotions. It may simply be nerves at having to speak about this power of hers. )

[rumorate]

[It is a bit of nerves. This also is probably the first bit of one-on-one time they've had since they've met without Five or Emilia as a buffer, and well.

She hasn't completely ignored what Five has said about him. She just set it aside to deal with as a later problem.]

The tea here is lovely. I'll order my favorite.

[The cafe is full of floral smells and baked goods, and she walks in like someone accustomed to being here. She places her regular order at the counter, before gesturing for Wrath to follow her to the room in the back.]

[inferus]

( Wrath follows behind her and then orders the same if only because he does not know what else to order. The smells are divine, however (and he should know).

He follows after her, stepping into the room in the back. His gaze glances back behind them. )

Would you like the door closed?

( Always choices. Choices are so important for him, which is why it was so difficult to stand in the midst of her using a power that rendered choices entirely from the grasps of others. No matter how horrid they are. )

[rumorate]

[Allison nods, because the last thing she needs is word of her abilities getting back to any member of the ruling party. Vannozza already is using her for leverage against Diego. She doesn't want Diego or worse, Vanya, to be put in a position of being leverage against her.

She moves to take one of the seats in the sitting room, and once the door is closed, she leans back in her seat with a sigh.]

For what it's worth, I don't use my power lightly. If we weren't so tight on time, I would have probably tried another way. But I also know that believing that requires trust we may not have built yet.

[inferus]

( Wrath remains standing for a moment as he studies her. He can usually sense when someone is lying, and he does not sense anything of the sort at the moment. There is a pause then, brief, weighted.

He moves forward and then sits as well. His body language is casual, calm. His gaze is guarded. )

Your brother can teleport, and you can- ( He pauses ) Are their limits to what you can convince someone to do? To say? In my world, such power is given to few, and it presents very differently.

( It is all tied to one emotion- one sin, brought out, spilled forth, ripping that person from their freewill and ability to choose )

[rumorate]

I ... I mean, there's a lot of things I haven't tried.

[Because that's not the kind of person she is. Though she did make someone kill their brother once, so it's not like there's some kind of self-preservation override.]

But just because I say something is true doesn't make it so.

[She shrugs.]

I was born with it. All of us were. And we were trained by a man who saw us as weapons rather people. He used me to shape things the way he wanted them. He had me force my sister to forget she had powers, but he couldn't use me to get rid of them completely.

[Which was shitty to do to Vanya either way, but also...they were five, and they didn't have the nuance to understand disobeying their father.]

[inferus]

( It sounds like more ripping someone's choices from them. It is far more difficult to deny the will of the person one feels they owe, and she does not say it exactly but he gets the sense she was quite young at the time- he remembers what it is like to be much younger than what he is now, the eternity that he is now.

She uses the word 'force' and he is certain that is for a reason. This is not what she wished to do to her sister. His brothers have little qualms with using their own abilities against anyone at all including one another.

Though they've all built up resistances to being manipulated in such a way. He leans forward, resting his folded hands on top of the table as he surveys her. )

A strange demand to make. I am assuming he felt he could not use your sister's powers for his own gain. Thus why he made you have her forget it.

( His gaze remains on her. )

You truly resist the urge to use your powers? It must be tempting. ( That is not said with judgement. Both mortals, demons- even demons of Hell can be tempted especially by something as tantalizing as power. )

[rumorate]

Reginald Hargreeves was never a fan of anything he couldn't control. Which makes you wonder why he thought it would be a good idea to adopt seven children.

[But Wrath isn't wrong. Hargreeves couldn't control Vanya - though he probably would have phrased it as Vanya not having control of her abilities.

But when he mentions the temptation she almost laughs.]

Oh, I've already gone down that rabbit hole. Got myself everything I ever wanted. Fame, fortune, all that jazz. But ... at the end of the day, none of it was real. None of the people I surrounded myself with were really my friends, none of the jobs I had were earned on my own merit. I lost custody of my daughter and ... that was my wakeup call that maybe my power wasn't everything that my father had made it out to be. It wasn't the answer.

[Then, she landed in the sixties with no voice, therefore no power to wield, and the life that she built there is likely the best she had ever had. And she did it all on her own.]

[inferus]

Clearly, he felt children would be more easy to manipulate. It obviously worked for a time, but all living beings have the power of choice and free will.

( Eventually, it would not work completely. Eventually, one would hope they were able to break free. Clearly they were if her answer is any indication. It's strange to think of how twisted her world view became- Someone who had no choice herself, who was taught from a young age the wrong thing only to have to find out harshly on her own the truth of the world around her, the truth about the power of choice.

Wrath would do anything to always have the power to choose. )

...and you know what it is like to have your choice stripped from you, to be used as a weapon as you used others as tools to your own success. I would hope that is its own deterrent.

( Not quite the same, of course, but similar enough. There's no judgement in the words themselves, but a simple statement of fact. He has found little can make someone appreciate choice more than having had it utterly stripped from them. It is the reason he will never use emotions against others as his brothers do. )

[rumorate]

It is. But it took me a while to really understand it.

[What it meant when she used her power. That it wasn't some kind of a game that she could use to her advantage. She didn't even really understand what she did to Vanya until much later.]

I made a lot of mistakes.

[inferus]

You were a child. It wasn't truly a choice for you at first.

( Not when she was manipulated as she was. Even after, her understanding would have been manipulated. At least she has learned the truth now. )

I believe making mistakes is simply part of... existence. ( Mortal or not. Even demons make mistakes at times. They simply have much more time to learn from those mistakes especially if they are one of the wicked. )

[rumorate]

Me too.

[Nobody is perfect, after all. But at the same time, there's varying degrees of mistakes, and Allison's are pretty huge.]

What matters, in the end, is whether or not we effectively learn from them.

[inferus]

And you did.

( There is an elongated pause then before he lifts his dark gaze back up to her own. He can sense the truth of it in her words. He is good at figuring out if someone is lying or not - it's the sound of the heartbeat, the breathing. )

I would ask two things.

One- don't use your ability on Emilia. ( Allison already knows Emilia is important to him. There is danger in letting this information be confirmed, but he feels it is more important to make a... firm request on her behalf when it comes to her choices. )

[rumorate]

[Unless Emilia suddenly becomes a threat to her family, it's a promise she's comfortable with keeping. She likes the girl, and these days, she tends to only use her power on people that deserve it.]

I can do that. The second?

[inferus]

I want you... to attempt to use your power on me. To tell me to stand.

( Powers to manipulate, to take choice away, to force people to act are common among his brothers. They are powers he possesses as well. As a strategist, he took precautions. He wrote on a paper in his room what he would attempt. He told Emilia so she could inform him if anything should go wrong.

He needs to know if her powers can get past all the defenses he has carefully built over an eternity, all the work he has put in to keeping his brothers from wrenching power from him. These defenses were built to withstand his brothers, and she is no Prince of Hell, but she is from another world, the power is different.

He needs to know. )

[rumorate]

[And that is when she hesitates.

It's clear that Wrath is more than he appears, and while she doesn't want to seem like she's hedging, the last time she tried to rumor someone with powers she didn't fully understand she stopped breathing.

Literally.

And the time before that her sister slit her throat.

As powerful as she is, she's still mostly human. She's not invincible. In some ways, having a person like Wrath be rightfully concerned about her power is a comfort, a cushion. Sometimes, it's safer to lean on a person's fear rather than learning the truth. But refusing would not exactly be a means of building trust either.

She swallows, before straightening in her seat.]

Can I trust you?

[inferus]

( Wrath meets her gaze from across the table, sensing her hesitation, and he is understanding of it. She is mortal at the end of the day despite how strong her power clearly is, and it is not as if he has hidden that he is not quite human himself, that he has powers of his own.

It's why he leans forward and then bows his head in a quiet promise, an almost oath, which mean more than mortals appear to know when it comes to demons- the princes of Hell. )

I give you my word, Allison Hargreeves. I will not harm you in your attempt to use your powers against me. If you wish to inform someone you do trust or to have them come here to watch over you, you should. I would take no offense.

I ask this as a request. Choice, freewill is... important to me. ( In a way most cannot possibly understand. ) I've taken precautions to protect myself from powers which could affect my own in any way, and I need to know.

( He could assume these precautions do still work given none of his brothers' powers work on him, and they are as ancient and powerful as he is (on varying levels), but- Assumptions are not the way Wrath makes his decisions. )

[rumorate]

[It's a rather formal way of saying yes, but in a way it's something of a comfort, that he's not attempting to gaslight her concerns. But now she's curious, and just to be sure.]

They're not ... reactive precautions?

[How do you ask this? She has a feeling it's not as he just gave her his word that he wouldn't hurt her, but she wants to make sure.]

Do they lash out, or do they just neutralize it?

[inferus]

( Wrath meets her gaze, curious, mildly concerned as well at the thought of reactive psychic powers. Some of his effects on emotions are entirely unintentional, and he would not enjoy feeling the effects of such an attack for something he cannot control.

He shakes his head in answer. )

They are more like mental walls - a shield. Not a sword.

I see you have experience with the alternative type?

[rumorate]

Back home there's someone with a power who can mimic any power she sees. When I tried to rumor her, she rumored me instead. Made me stop breathing.

[A pause.]

And when my sister found out about what our father told me to do, she was understandably upset, and dealing with powers she didn't know how to control. I tried to calm her down, and I didn't see another option, but when I tried ...

[She reaches over, and pulls down her collar. He can likely see the slight discoloration of skin, the scar left behind from where the violin bow sliced into skin.]

I try to be a bit more careful.

[inferus]

( That is an impressive power to be given to any mortal - the power to mimic any power that she sees, any at all. It sounds quite dangerous, and his expression reflects the grimness of her tale.

He does not look surprised but still grim when she says what her sister did to her, when she shows the evidence that remains from the brutal attack. It was not long ago his brother disembowled him. Granted, he is not mortal, but he is certain some of his brothers wish he were. He hears stories often of family members killing one another- mortals, demons alike.

It's the wrath in them, the anger, the vengeance- In a moment, emotion can take hold, and it is a powerful force. )

Anger is a powerful motivator. When the emotion is strong enough, people can do a great many things they would not without it.

Lose parts of themselves if they are not careful. ( Or they can gain parts too, sharpen their edges, fight. )

[rumorate]

[Allison nods, because that's certainly true of Vanya. She both lost and gained, and while she's still a time bomb in some ways - for some reason, Vanya is always ending the world - they're here to help her now, rather than isolate her the way Hargreeves did.]

We're working on it. My sister and I. We're doing a lot better than we were, and so is she. It's just one of those things that takes time.

[She then shakes it off and straightens.]

Anyway. You didn't come here for a sob story.