ic A Friendly Chit Chat

[TheAbsurdist]

GM

November 10th.

 

It wasn't terribly that problematic for Glamazon to arrive her, it was her balliwick. It was trafficking in some things of various value, arcane and money. But nothing big, but enough for Glamazon to run across it when the deal went south, and a gun fight started up in the back alley of a neighborhood populated by peoples from the various Balkan states.  Much like the people involved.

 

Easy peasy.

 

A bunch of low level goons, thugs, and a couple middle men, with no real power to muster between them to slow her down and make this far, far worse than it could be. Especially since none of them had weapons that could even scuff her skin. Morale broke quickly, with cries of 'I am not paid enough for this!' or 'I am not going back!'

 

Still, Glamazon was in the choke point for this particular alleyway, and the first one that got close enough ate a swing of her arm, knocking him down to the ground, his breath exploding out. One, wisely, got the idea of climbing up a fire escape, rather than attempt to face the Atlantean princess, as others scrambled for cover. However there wasn't that many, and she was an imposing physical specimen enough that it was hardly a problem, even when one managed to levied a shotgun to her face, and pulled the trigger.

 

And her to not even blink, before solidly landing a front kick that sent him careening into a wall. Eventually there was only the one that had made it to the rooftop.  Despite his lack of athletcism, he did a fistpump of victory, and ran from the edge of the roof.

 

The sweaty man in a tracksuit didn't make it far before being flung back off the roof, and then dropping onto the top of the stereotypical panel van (seriously, why do criminals use those?) with a "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh-!" KA-THUMP!

 

It was a dramatic introduction for the dark figure crouched over him. One who all but slithered off of the man, and the van, likely with a plan, as the figure carried herself (that part was clear once she had any bit of light on her) confidently.

 

"Good. We get to meet." The woman said behind a scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face, as she turned to look at Thaelia, with that wary, dissecting gaze that the Atlantean girl was familiar with. Even if her classmate that possessed it had managed to be all but vanish from her presence these days.

Edited December 1, 2014 by TheAbsurdist

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia stared at the woman for a moment.  The Atlantean had never seen the woman before in her life.  But, that glance as if one was under a microscope.  The predatory slink in her movements.  And almost exciting twinge of danger in the air.  She could have been at home as a Socotran assassin.
 
But, no that stare was something entirely different.  It was too much like Errant's to give Thaelia a sense of unease.  Errant was an at times incomprehensible classmate.  But a schoolmate that she trusted, despite their somewhat tumultuous situation, ever the same.  It made the feeling of being watched with that faraway stare by someone else odd.  But, in no way had her on guard.
 
"Verily, your presence is good fortune in apprehending the fiends on this day.  Yet, I must inquire a matter of utmost import.  Who are you?"

[TheAbsurdist]

The woman possessed almond eyes, and the features that Thaelia could see were smooth.  Her dark hair cut short, utilitarian.  The scarf did much to hide enough of her expression to made reading her tricky at best, or she was just good at hiding her agenda from her face  She approached the Atlantean princess.   Her hands, and she casually readjusted her gloves, looking back over her shoulder at the man she left on the roof of the van behind her.  Drawing closer, she gave up several inches in height to Thaelia, though the woman was hardly slender.

 

"I wont speak in riddles Atlantean.  You know my son.  He is your classmate.  I have watched as best I could."

 

Of course, while Errant hadn't had a heart to heart with her, she knew that both of his parents were either mercenaries, or in service to New Freedom's regime.

 

"We need to talk."

[Brown Dynamite]

Her very limited knowledge of Errant's parents told her one thing.  This woman was dangerous.  There were whispers around the school.  But Thaelia's classmates had learned not to send unconfirmed gossip her way.  The princess' trusting nature made her take all idle gossip at face value at first.  And then her less than subtle nature let her ask people about said rumors without any tact.

 

"Then talk we shall."  At this point Thaelia left all focus off the beaten thugs.  They were a nonfactor.  The locals would have already called for the police.  So they didn't need to stick around in the area to watch the.  But, she also wasn't about to make any suggestions of leaving the area.  Not when her interesting had been piqued.

 

How long has this surveillance occurred?

[TheAbsurdist]

The woman distorted, as she stepped forward, and a gloved hand pressed to her shoulder, before there was a sense of swimming for a moment, and then they were elsewhere.  More specifically on a rooftop, not too far away.  Thaelia was able to tell that they were still in the same neighborhood, though the woman took her hand away shortly thereafter.

 

"Oh, this conversation was going to happen.  After all I made sure you got the information that led you here."  She then moved from her and then turned around to face the Atlantean, with her hands at her side.  And she just stared at Thaelia for several long moments, "You have to stay away from him.  He gets sloppy around you, that... that can't happen.  Do you understand?  It is bad enough he... acts so irrationally at times, but you... you make him so very sloppy."

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia was slightly impressed by the change in scenery.  It was a different sensation when riding the Kit express.  But, Sam's powers were magic.  The same likely could not be said about Errant's mothers.  While the Atlantean royal appreciated that his mother cared for him deeply enough to be concerned.  She would not be ordered around as an introduction.

 

"...No?"  Thaelia questioned confused for a moment.  Before extending a palm out to make sure it was known she was continuing from that train of thought.  "I do not understand how your son becomes sloppy.  Nor shall the Daughter of the Seas let thee dictate who she may associate with."  As usual there was no real filter in her thought to verbalization process. 

 

This was her last year that she would be living on the surface.  Knowing as such Thaelia valued the time left with her friends.  And no one, not even the parent of one of those comrade in arms, was going to cut said time any shorter.  "Our time together is lacking as is."

[TheAbsurdist]

The woman tilted her head a little bit.  "This is a matter of his safety child.  If you cannot understand that, then he has been smart enough, at least, to keep things from you."  She started to pull off her gloves slowly, not making a show of it, so much as attempting to be very precise about it, then she folded them, and put them in the front pocket of her jacket.

 

"But I will not allow him to make the kind of mistakes that could lead his father here.  My son is not being taken by that man and his thugs."  Her arms folded across her chest.  It was a natural gesture from her, where one might normally see it as a pretension to being threatening, with this woman it seemed natural.  However naive Thaelia might be she had even evidence to see Errant's mother as a threat.

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia watched the woman carefully  It was amazing how much her calculated movements reminder her of Errant.  She wondered if she had her own tics inherited from the parents she never met.  Or perhaps from Theseus.  "I know not of Errant's father.  But know this, there is no place safer to stand than on the side of the Glamazon."  Thaelia wasn't sure as to the full reasons for Elias needing to stay hidden.  But, she didn't need to know either.

 

Errant wasn't the only student attending Claremont with demons to run from.  In the case of Samantha Vance there were literal ones.  Giang had the long arm of a mysterious East Asian underground organization.  Even Thaelia had to fend off the occasional assassin just by virtue of some Atlantean barbarians with notions of grandeur.

[TheAbsurdist]

And this woman couldn't care less about the others, unlike her son, there seemed to be no awkward stiffness to her manners.  She had that casualness of a soldier.  "I would also almost say that is adorable.  I already know your kind, Atlantean.  And you can't see where such an attack would come.  Worse you blind my son, or at least distracts him because he is looking at your, rather than where he ought to."

 

Truthfully, Errant was aware of his status, and unlike his mother, did care.  Maybe he didn't always have a choice in the picking up of others emotions, and he sometimes tended to be roughshod, but he knew the impact.  This woman lacked that.  It was clear that she didn't think Thaelia or anyone of his friends could help him.

 

Thaelia was right to wonder over the influence over parents, as she could see the stubborn insistence, and almost maniacal self-reliance.  This woman didn't trust her.  "I had hope it was just stupid teenage impulses, but you...  You he fixates on.  And I can't have him be distracted by you, and your eventual departure.  He can't have that, even if he doesn't want to accept that fact."

[Brown Dynamite]

"One needs not see an attack to prevent it.  Or perhaps your skills are lacking?  Didst the sword for hire need forewarning before every challenge?"  Thaelia spat back.  She, did not care for the woman's derisiveness. "...he is fixating on me?"
 
The last question was of genuine confusion.  As of late Thaelia hadn't run into Errant too often that she could recall.  Even though they ran in similar circles and shared the Next-Gen affiliation.  He still managed to elude her all the same.  Her confusion was boiled over by her own steadfast stubbornness.  Refusing to budge on her opinion on the matter either.
 
"I do not force my company upon anyone.  You should take care to follow this.  Errant is free to choose his own companions.  If my presence bothers you so.  Speak to him of your woes.  But, do not expect a princess of Atlantis to ever abandon her friends." The declaration was not only to the older woman. Taking personal insult at the implication that she could hinder anyone of her companions. Thaelia wanted to strive to prove that even after graduation, no matter the distance her loyalty would lie with her friends.

[TheAbsurdist]

She stopped, letting her hands settle at her sides, bare.  It was an implied threat that she was unaware of.  "Let me pretty the words for you, you are just a little trollop, and I wont allow you to influence my son's focus."  She took a step back, more to adjust her stance more than anything else.  "All the fears you have of him, the doubts you have of him as a person are far more true than you realize."

 

And there was a smile on her face, that showed from under the scarf, up into her eyes, though it lacked mirth.  "Of royal and divine blood, then I suppose you must really believe in the influence that spreads down through the line.  If that's true, then the son of murderers, thieves, and mercenaries, and raised by them as well, wont ever be far from his ilk."

[Brown Dynamite]

Errant's mother was excellent t getting Thaelia riled up.  Perhaps more so than most anyone Thaelia could recently recl.  If she had ended the sentiment on calling the teen a harlot it would have ended with the Glamazon pouncing on her.  But, she took it a step forward.  Making assumptions on how the royal felt on lineage. 

 

If she judged people solely by their lineage there were plenty of classmates whose lineage was of ill repute.  Not least of which her former roommate, Giang.  "Blood provides an opportunity.  An opportunity to help and to harm.  But it is not a decree.  Thine words are not that of the Moira.  His fate has not been decreed by any hand other than his own."

 

"Is it worrying?  That perhaps the trollop's words have greater weight to your son than his murderous ilk?" Thaelia sighed for a moment.  She was pretty sure that angering your friend's parents wasn't proper savoire faire on the surface.  Family was important and all.

[TheAbsurdist]

The woman's eyes narrowed then, as she looked at the girl, lapsing into silence.  It was a palpable thing.  The sirens coming from the earlier fight didn't help matters.  The similarities was quite startling between her and Elias. Though it was clear she was actively trying to goad Thaelia, or at least it would appear as much.  Maybe the girl hit something, or maybe she was debating whether or not to just kill Thaelia and be done with it.  The calculus of possible actions played out though, as she looked at Thaelia with that predator's scrutiny.

 

"II know I don't get to choose how my son lives.  But he cannot be taken back.  He will make a mistake around you, and his father will find him.  He will take him back, and then my son with be indoctrinated and made a good little weapon for Harper.  You've seen what he can do, what cult of personality wouldn't want someone like Elias?  I would rather kill my son, then let that happen to him."

 

She stepped closer then, looking up at Thaelia's face, "We aren't from your world.  We can never be in it.  We're shadows on the edges of it.  He wont ever be broken into being a thing... do you understand?  His father takes him and that's what happens.  Him being a teenage boy, and unable to see the consequences for his actions, the mistakes he would make... I have to protect him."

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia looked down at the woman.  Staring her down.  Then she did something not in concert with the situation.  She reached out with both arms and wrapped them around the woman.  Embracing her with a hug.

 

Threatening to kill one's child may not have been the most sincere declaration of love.  And very few people would think an assassin a person to safely hug.   But the Atlantean royal was positive that the woman's intentions were to keep Errant safe.  She knew sparsely of the dealings in New Freedom.  What little she knew wasn't the sort of thing that left a positive outlook on people.

 

Thaelia wasn't anywhere near as calculated as the woman standing opposite to her.  She wore her heart on her sleeve.  Which also meant a great capacity for empathy.  Empathy for a mother wanting nothing more than keeping her son safe from the evil's of their past.  "Errant is lucky.  You are a good mother."  The loud boisterous teen whispered.  "You have my word.  He shall be protected."

[TheAbsurdist]

There was a moment, a heartbeat, and the woman hands erupted into virulent green fire that dripped from her fingers like a syrup, splattering on the ground beneath them.  And then she wrenched free, it was an elegant move, really.  The same brutal minimalism that her son had, as instinct took over, but she stopped herself midway through the motion... And then...

 

She several strides away, her hands held up, and gripped tightly into fists, warding off Thaelia.  "No.  Just no.  I don't... need that, or want that.  Stop.  You don't understand...  Search records for Haywire, the code name."