Scene #9005: Another Day at the Office

Owner	Pose
Persephone Kore	Phony is probably the first person to befriend a budgetary functionary at a meeting. I don't know why! They're pretty nice. The meeting is, for what it is, pretty lowkey. There's no need to stand on pomp or to intimidate with position, so it all has the air of a business meeting in a coffeehouse, albeit one in luxurious surroundings that goes on tediously long. The figure that Phony slides across the table for Sapient Heuristics is eyewatering, and she drops it with the peppy innocence of someone who has absolutely no idea what that amount of money means. Hey!! I sort of do! She doesn't. They rubberstamp it anyway. The wildest thing about how she jokes and laughs and bonds with everyone present is that it doesn't even feel like she's doing it to schmooze, because I'm not!, and in a way that makes me perfect, and whoever weaponized and deployed her to this meeting probably knew exactly what they were doing. This is just how she spends time, how she exists. Madeleine is included, but not overincluded, so naturally that she might get the impression that Phony doesn't remember their prior meeting at all. After 'enough time that you really miss stretching your legs', the meeting's adjourned, and most everyone filters out, and that illusion breaks. "Hey," says Persephone, piercing Madeleine with her friendly near-orange stare. She leans over the gorgeous hardwood table, cheek smooshed in one hand. "You don't hate me." I can tell! "But do you sort of wish you did?" The woman who is igniting a tiny Sun in her palm to reheat her coffee thinks that's a normal way to start a conversation. https://youtu.be/1-Bgs27hB5k
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine didn't exactly want to show up for this meeting, but she took the time to dress for the occasion anyway - gotta keep up appearances, after all. So she arrived today in a black wool coat, over a black shirt with lace collar and cuffs, and tight-fitting white-on-black pinstriped trousers. It's funny, despite the vertical stripes her outfit doesn't give her the impression of being taller than usual. The coat comes off posthaste and is draped over the back of a chair before Madeleine's even taken a seat. The good thing about Concord budget meetings is the staggering material wealth of the organization makes it unlikely for a budget item to be rejected. The bad thing is those items still need to be enumerated, to some extent. And so Madeleine finds herself elbow-deep in a sheaf of notes, explaining the importance of establishing cooperations with a recently-unified nation known as the 'Southern Assembly' - it's a Commonwealth state, but that mostly just means extra paperwork for the MCRD. She hardly even notices that she's not the only Elite at today's gathering, and apparently has yet to realize who exactly the other Elite in the room is. At long last the meeting winds to a close, and Madeleine lingers in the conference room, gathering the MCRD's documents back into a folder and - wait, is that Persephone? Gods, it is! How long has she been here!? "Hey." Madeleine holds in a shiver, but not in time to suppress the accompanying uneasy smile. "You don't hate me. But do you sort of wish you did?" The huntress opens her mouth to reply - and freezes halfway through raising a finger to accentuate whatever she was about to say. There's no point in dishonesty. She'd know, right? That's probably how this works. Finally, after closing her mouth a few seconds too late to not be awkward about it, she composes what she thinks is a decent enough answer. "I... don't, yeah. You haven't done me wrong, at least. But..." her lip twitches in discomfort. She glances down at the miniature sun, then winces and blinks hard a few times as she regrets making direct eye contact with the little star - it is, after all, still a sun. By some miracle this doesn't make her lose her train of thought. "Fear might be more accurate than hate. Fear keeps me on my toes. Keeps me alive. If I had a lick of sense I wouldn't be opening up to you like this, but here I am. Why can't I be afraid of you, like I can with just about anyone else?"
Persephone Kore	There's no point in dishonesty. She'd know, right? Ahahaha, I would! You're learning! There's that feeling, that pull on your heart and skin, that hopelessly-spiraling-in towards warmth and contentedness that happens to anyone and everyone around me. The radius is 'yes'. Did it somehow not hit Madeleine until she realized Phony was there? ... Or was it seeping into her this whole time, and only now can she put a cause to it? "Ahahaha. I'm amazing! People should be a little scared of me!" Persephone opens her eyes after the laugh just to wink. "But only a little. And I think I know why you're not, MC." MC? It's a work in progress! I'll find a good one! Phony stands, cradling her now-steaming coffee and dismissing a celestial body just like that, and walks out to the balcony nearby. "For one thing, you're tired of it! Staying scared is hard work. And for another thing..." Clack, clack, clack. Chest-height wrought-iron railings, trailed about by flowering vines, frames the rest of the Grand Dorado far below the administrative tower. From here the buildings look like toys, the vehicles like bugs. Phony leans against the railing, and makes a swirling gesture with her finger, and the clouds above swirl too as if stirred with a spoon, and she laughs a little. "Look at all those people down there," she says, even though it takes a sharp eye to make out 'people' at all. "Are they scared of me, you think?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"Did it somehow not hit Madeleine until she realized Phony was there? ... Or was it seeping into her this whole time, and only now can she put a cause to it?" It's like acclimating to cold water. The shock of a sudden plunge can kill, but Madeleine's been stewing in Persephone's presence for the whole run of the meeting, slowly easing her in whether she noticed or not. If someone pointed this out to Madeleine, she'd probably scream. "Staying scared is hard work." "It... yeah. I mean, I'm pretty good at it by now. Lots of practice. My instincts are how I survive. If I have to look at someone and make a decision about whether she's dangerous, that's already too slow. That's a moment where that someone might pounce." Did Madeleine notice that she used 'she' there, and not a more generic 'they'? "Look at all those people down there. Are they scared of me, you think?" Madeleine finds herself drawn to the balcony, to sharing the view with Persephone. "They're not," she says, with a hint of uncertainty born of not knowing where Persephone is going with this. "Because they don't have your attention. They probably would be if they did, and I do. But my gut doesn't tell me you're a danger. Not like it does with everyone else." An anxious sip of coffee.
Persephone Kore	If someone pointed this out to Madeleine, she'd probably scream. Don't worry, I won't~! "Not like it does with everyone else." "Everyone?" Persephone says. The question is rhetorical. The sympathetically pained smile on her face isn't. Everyone. Or close enough that it feels true. "I'm glad I can give you a little break. Only, it's not as much of a break as it should be. You're still tense!" The way her hair swims, after turning to look at you, is unnatural. Like underwater. Like zero-G. "Look." She points down at the Grand Dorado. "There: someone named Sioi is sad because their grandmother died." Different spot: "She's practicing art, but she's not confident, because she never feels 'inspired', and she thinks real artists aren't supposed to force it." Again, down on the streets: "He lost his first balloon a little while ago, but he's happy, because it felt like setting a bird free." "Everyone's completely and totally at my mercy all the time, you know?" That is such a statement to chase with 'you know?'. "So maybe, I thought, you feel safe because even though that's true, I never hurt anyone, so there can't be any harm in relaxing?" "Only," (The way she perks up as she turns is scary, eyes big and bright.) "Then you said something really interesting." (Half-step forward, beaming, slight lean down.) "'They'd be scared if they had my attention'. But you aren't! Maddie... do you mean you have a special reason to not be scared? A reason just unique to you? A reason just unique to me? A little thread that connects us together, someone who's scared of everyone, and someone everyone should be scared of?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"I'm glad I can give you a little break. Only, it's not as much of a break as it should be. You're still tense!" "Yeah. I mean, I have to be, right? If I'm going to survive. Beyond just the- the tigers, you probably already know about those-" Memories of recent brushes with her curse surface, clearly enough for Persephone to sense without having to try. "-there's people, too, who'll hurt me if I let them. Who have hurt me, when I let them. And I need to be ready to- to hurt people back, or first, if they try." Madeleine is starting to formulate a thought, about how Sioi and the artist and the balloon kid all don't have anything to worry about from Persephone because she knows that she doesn't have anything to worry about from them, when something clicks into place in her head and her heart all but drops through the floor. Madeleine caught him outside a Starbucks, of all places. It was intentional, of course - she'd learned he had a sister, tracked her to her workplace in Miami, drawn him out with a hint of supernatural mischief just close enough to someone he cared about, and just trivial enough to convince him he could handle it alone. Oh, how wrong he was. Oh, how wrong he was. It was easy, really. One cut and the poison did all the work. Blackened veins throbbed on his bicep, where Drogrung had done its vile work. In moments his own body turned against him, carrying the venom to his heart, his lungs, his brain. Blood wept from his eyes. Blackened lips called silently for help that would not come. A feeble, trembling hand reached for the door of the Starbucks as he fell to his knees. His dying breath bore his sister's name. And there, under the hot Florida sun, a god died. All in a day's work. That was a world and a lifetime ago. But... could it happen again? Madeleine's mind whirls with possibilities, faster than she can keep up with herself, let alone conceal from Persephone. Am I the threat? After all this doubt, all this quivering in my boots at her presence? Madeleine staggers backward, collapsing into her chair again. "You're going to kill me," she mutters, words spilling out at the speed of thought. "You're going to kill me and that will be that."
Persephone Kore	Not half a second after that gut-dropping pang, I see your heart. Bright eyes gently drill in before Maddie's expression even shifts. While that awful vignette flickers behind Madeleine's eyes, Phony's hair is drifting, lips are parting, hand is reaching out. What happens if Persephone wishes you didn't exist? Do you just-- "Maddie?" One word, warm concern like a splash of cold water to the face. Clack, clack, clack, and Phony pursues as Maddie retreats. For a second, leaving the sunlight of the balcony, a shadow is cast over her face. But when Madeleine collapses back into a chair, Persephone crouches down too, rather than loom. And I reach out for your hand, and I squeeze it a little, but I just don't understand, because "What?" Blink-blink. "Anyone can hurt me." And through the pressure of her aura are glimpses of times she's been yelled at, times people have been mean, and-- What feels like a million years ago, there's a man with a gun. Persephone tries to talk him down. He shoots me in the chest, and I wish he didn't, and that's that. "What if he had shot you in the head?!" a teammate says. "Huh? I guess I'd be dead, then. Do you worry about that?" --and two million years ago, "Haha, sorry! I never learned to be on my guard." Her lips-parted innocence is a different kind of gut-dropping. "And why would you want to do that, anyway?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	As Persephone takes Madeleine's hand, the huntress flinches - not enough to pull away from Persephone's touch, but enough that Persephone can feel, physically, the brief impulse to withdraw, to stay on guard. It doesn't last. Madeleine's posture shifts, she leans forward a little, her free hand fidgets uncertainly on the armrest. She barely reacts, outwardly, to Persephone's shower of little memory-fragments, finding herself caught up in the physical gesture even as the mental connection flows both ways for a moment. "And why would you want to do that, anyway?" "I-I mean, I wouldn't, right? I don't. But like, I could, and that's just as dangerous, right? It's worse, even, to have the ability and not want to take advantage, because that just means I'll make excuses when I do, right? That's how it works, that's how it always works." She's halfway to babbling, thoughts spilling out unfiltered. "Why are you so nice to me? You don't- you have everything you need, right? On your space station. What use do you have for an- an assassin? I say 'huntress' a lot but that's just another word for killer. We both know what I am, now."
Persephone Kore	"But like, I could, and that's just as dangerous, right?" "Madeleine," I say, lips tugged in the shape of heartbreak. "that just means I'll make excuses when I do, right?" "Maddie . . ." Hand squeezing tight, like I'm rescuing you from water. "That's how it works, that's how it always works." "Mads." Eyelids tensed, bracing for her own tears. Persephone's other hand cups Maddie's face, with the gentleness of care to the dying. Her thumb draws little circles on her cheek. Humans aren't supposed to be this warm. Maybe it's hard for others to see feeling in Maddie's eyes. It isn't hard for Phony. "What use do you have for an- an assassin?" "I care about you," she says, quiet, almost hoarse. "Stop being so mean to yourself. Stop being so mean to me. Like I'd throw you away. Like I'm delicate. Like I didn't really mean it when I said anything. Come on." Madeleine feels the hug on her skin before Persephone actually wraps her arms around her, and then stands, pulling Maddie to her feet too. Body to body, heart to heart, lips to ear. "I have to be strong enough to love everyone," she says. A little tremor runs through her body. "But, do you know, you make it easy?" "Thank you for letting me make you feel safe."