video | un: wooden sword & un: widow

[vdovy]

[ It is late in the night when the video feed goes live. The scene: a spacious, gilded room in one of the lux summer villas where Messalina's infiltrators have been stationed. Warm candlelight illuminates Yelena, standing with her hands on her hips in front of Natasha, who is seated (if you can call it sitting) in a large, ornate chair with her legs hanging over one of the chair's intricately carved arms.

The pair of them have looked better. Yelena's crisp patrician attire is wrinkled and in some places torn and Natasha only seems presentable because her clothes are dark enough to mask bloodstains. Their faces are smudged with dirt and their hair, once carefully braided back, now resembles a bird nest, complete with loose leaves and small twigs. ]

We've just finished cleaning up after Alir. Again. [ Natasha runs a hand through her hair and makes a face when her palm comes back streaked with blood. Next to her, it's Yelena's turn to address the network. ]

He could have been exposed tonight, or any other night, the way we've all had to cover for him.

He's a problem. So the question is, what are we prepared to do about it?

(OOC: Default color dialogue is Natasha, red dialogue is Yelena. Tag around, threadjack at will. Alir is the shapeshifting demon impersonating Senator Maximus Faustus. Nat and Yelena are opening discussion up between Messalina's infiltrators, most of whom have had to pick up after Alir's appetites, but other party members are welcome to chime in.)

Comments

[redhourglass]

( """weak ass witches""" )

Can you take him if he does get violent? Because frankly, I'm not sure I can for longer than a few seconds. It might not be enough time for you to get away.

[matermali]

'Take him'... [ Context has gotten her this far. ] Yes.

[ Not that she has any experience at all fighting such a thing head-on, yet there's no falter to her claim. In so many ways she has become weak, but not where it is darkest, it seems.

She also doesn't much care if she is killed, but volunteering this information isn't going to garner any trust. ]

I would never run.

[redhourglass]

( there's a huff over the line, like a small snort of amusement )

Maybe you'll change your mind. You haven't seen him in action yet.

[matermali]

I have seen enough.

[ Though, she can still be surprised. There are worse things. ]

...Have you encountered demons before now? You don't seem overfond.

[redhourglass]

Demons? Not exactly.

( aliens is the more accurate term. or men. really, really bad men. but... )

The last woman he killed, she was walking home from her work as a laundress. She just walked by him. I'm not 'overfond' of the murder of innocent people.

[matermali]

It would be a mistake to think he represents all demonkind.

[redhourglass]

Just the kind that's actively killing people.

[matermali]

While he could benefit from being more discerning, there is little he can do about needing to consume hearts to survive. Humans hunt for their meat. They kill for lesser reasons. Petty reasons.

He is a monster, yes. What would you say you are, then?

[redhourglass]

I never claimed to be anything else.

( if moral righteousness was what vanessa expected, she's in the wrong place. )

He could kill criminals. He could kill those who hurt others. He doesn't have to go after innocents.

my bad to your inbox

[matermali]

[ But she does spot a little. ]

No one is innocent.

i WILL prevail

[redhourglass]

Why are you defending him?

[matermali]

Even that born of evil can know more than malice. Every monster should have a mother.

Worry not for my focus. Should he show any signs of turning on our company or harming our operation, I will be the first to take his heart from his breast.

[redhourglass]

( a mother ... the choice of words is interesting, to say the least. any normal mother would (natasha imagines) hesitate to claim alir as a child. which just gave her more to add to the internal file she's building on vanessa, and why she might involve herself in this. )

He's already putting the operation at risk. ( but, she'll leave it there. she doesn't need to have the last word. )

Let me know when you're going to engage him? Whether you need backup or not, someone should watch your back.

[matermali]

[ 'Watch your back'. Oh, she's heard that before. Empty, empty, empty. ]

Tonight, when it is quiet.

[redhourglass]

( to natasha's credit — she will watch vanessa's back. and her own. you don't have to trust someone to not let them be ripped apart by demonic tentacles. )

I can stay down wind of him. Not sure if he can smell me.

[matermali]

[ If Alir can't, Vanessa can, but she probably shouldn't mention that. Nobody likes being told that she can smell their fear. ]

So long as you are not still decorated with viscera...

[ A joke. Laugh. ]

[redhourglass]

( ok ok, that is exactly her kind of humor — there's a huff over the line, a smothered laugh. )

I'll shower off before them. ( actually bathe, probably, but whatever. )