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"They should be around here somewhere," Lux says to Jack. They're holding tightly to his hand, fingers laced with his as they lead him through the door and into the Hollow. "You going to be okay retelling the story?"
"Yeah I'll be fine." Jack...doesn't sound so sure, but what else is he gonna do? He takes a few breaths to steady himself, though his mien stays flickery and scattered.
Izzy Higgins, for all their relatively high Wyrd, doesn't look too inhuman, at least at first glance. It's only on second, or third glance that the deep lines creasing the corners of their eyes look like they're sketched in ink, and their body seems outlined as if Roy Lichtenstein himself had drawn them into the world. Their heavy Eagles hoodie hangs loosely on their Wizened frame, and they lean back against the outside wall of one of the cottages, next to Lumi. Their chin tips up toward Lux and Jack, lips pressed into a line.
Lumi Aaltonen, for her part, looks an ambulatory ice sculpture. She's leaning again wall next to Izzy like the two had been chatting idly while they waited, but when Lux and Jack come in she turns their way and regards them with an expression as blank as if she had Rigid Mask, except that only her mien is visible. It's like the woman has no facial expressions at all, really. It gives her a mild case of resting bitch face, not helped by the fact that she's made of ice, or by the sharply tailored suit she's wearing.
After a moment she raises a hand and gives a little wave.
"It'll be okay. I'll be with you the whole time," Lux says softly, then leads him towards the Knights when they spot them. Lux gives them a respectful nod in greeting. "Hey. Thanks for meeting us."
Jack nods too when they get close, staying half a step behind Lux. He's squeezing the other Darkling's hand tightly, and offers up a small smile. "Yeah. Thanks for taking the time."
Pushing away from the wall, Izzy makes a dismissive gesture with one ink-splattered hand, multi-colored hues soaked into zir fingers and all the way up to zir wrist. "It's our job," ze assures the duo, turning to open a door into one of the cottages, marked on its door with a huge ink splash.
Within, a studio, piled in the corners with all sorts of various artistic implements, paintings stacked up against the walls, a potter's wheel here, a box of watercolors there, tubes of paint in semi-coherent rows on a rack... "Grab a chair," Izzy offers, "And I'll grab some water. Tell us what the fuck's going on."
Zir manner's much more relaxed than Lumi's, almost a studied mannerism, an artistic affectation, making a counterpart to the Left Hand's frozen features.
"Like ze said," Lumi agrees, as she follows inside, and when they move inside she goes to take a seat herself. She doesn't move with any hurry, but once she's seated she asks casually as can be, "I hope that Guy or Sledge didn't end up taking issue to your discussing things like ghouls and immortality in a public place, where anyone could be listening." She looks at Lux the whole time, and it's really, really hard to tell if she's calling them out or making a joke. Her expression never shifts at all, and the tone of her voice is utterly flat.
Lux leads Jack into the cottage and directs him to a chair. They're immediately distracted by glancing around, blinking at all the air--but they shake their head and force themself to focus. Or, well, Lumi's words force them to focus. They look to her for a second or two, then exhale a breath. "No. This doesn't have anything to do with Guy or Sledge. It's this bitch named Anna-Marie." They look to Jack. "Just start from the beginning," they urge, settling into a chair beside him.
Jack doesn't settle so much as perch on the edge of the offered chair, and takes yet another breath to steady himself. "It...the only reason we're even here is because she's a vampire, which I didn't know when she reached out to me for a private meeting. Her name's Anna-Marie Cordray, she's a 'weath management specialist'...she was interested in giving a 'donation' to my union, through me. Because she wants an inside man, for whatever reason." He grimaces and gives his head a little shake, charcoal lines flying out every which way as he moves. "Didn't take it, 'cause I'm not gonna be bought by some slimy corporate snake, and she...straight-up fucking threatened to come after Lux. She knew I'm not mortal, she may have known that before she even called me, I dunno. Knew...shit about me that I don't tell people." Jack stops, his shoulders sagging a little as he finishes talking. "Think...that's it."
"She threatened him, too. Said she'd lie to the unions, get him in trouble or fired or whatever. Right?" Lux eyes Jack.
A little glance aside at Lumi when she delivers her Winter-level callout, and Izzy's pupils briefly turn into exclamation points, and then back into normally-shaped pupils. Ze slings zirself onto a chair backwards, leaning zir ink-spattered forearms. Chin on hand, and ze listens. "What did she know? You don't have to tell me, like, the facts, just the category. Like 'she knew my personal frailties' or 'she knew some universal frailties of our kind.'"
"Ah, wonderful, a *different *vampire problem," Lumi says with a slight nod of her head, and still no change in expression. She sits back, looking relaxed while also watching and listening to both Lux and Jack with a gaze that moves between one and the other as they speak. "Understandable that you wouldn't want to get sucked into that kind of situation." She glances at Izzy and then back at Jack. "I'm guessing that you mean information that, for instance, she couldn't find by crawling your Facebook profile?"
"Oh. Yeah that's...she did." He seems to have just forgotten it, rather than having intentionally left it out. "She knew..." He shifts, a little uncomfortable, "personal stuff about me. Mundane...I guess psychological shit? And that I'm not mundane. Didn't seem to know what I am though, and I think she assumed Lux's mundane, too. She definitely's looked me up, but it was more than that. Nothing about frailties, or any of our kind."
Lux is quiet, but gives Jack's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"Hmmm," agrees Izzy sidelong with Lumi, and ze stays quiet, listening. an absent scratch of zir cheek with those ink-stained fingers. "Mundane psychological shit." Another shift of zir pupils, into question marks, before they slide back into circles once more. "Okay. So we've got a vampire, who knows -- not what you are, but definitely either -- did she say she knew you weren't human, or did she imply that she knew and knock you off balance enough that you confirmed it?" That inky hand is raised. "No judgment either way, I just gotta know what we're dealing with, here."
"They do that," Lumi says blandly, with a slight nod of her head. "Some of them are experts at picking up details, especially ones that might be perceived as weakness. They're predators, after all." She glances at Izzy, then settles back and lets zir questions stand.
"She said there was something about me that's...different than in humans. Made me 'intriguing'." He shudders. "Don't think she was trying to be subtle. She said it outright later, too."
Lux shifts a bit in their chair, lips pursed into a thin line. Even their mantle ain't helping too much to keep the anger from their face.
A heavy sigh written on the air. "Okay." And then ze rubs zir cheek absently once more, leaving smears across zir skin that fade momentarily. "So, before I say anything else, in a perfect world, if you could snap your fingers and make anything happen in response to this situation as it currently stands, what would you want, Jack Martingale?"
In this moment Lumi is satisfied to let Izzy ask questions, since at the moment the questions that are most pertinent to her are already being asked. She sits there still as a statue and simply watches, her expression unchanging. Not hostile, not encouraging, just blank.
Lux gets a glance and a half - what is it with Winters asking Jack what he wants? - and he shifts uncomfortably on his chair again. "Um. I...would want her to...not be able to act on any of the threats she made. I would want her to not know that she'd made them, or know who Lux is, or to even know that we had a conversation. I'd want her to never fucking try to do that to anyone ever again. And I'd want to be sure of it." His voice gets a touch of heat at the end, the animated gesture sketch of his face getting darker, more intense.
Lux opens their mouth--perhaps to give their opinion of what should be done. But seems to realize that wasn't what Izzy asked for, so forces themself to quiet, though still looking grumpy.
But apparently that's the next question, which is not asked verbally but by Izzy shifting zir gaze to Lux, pupils turning into question marks briefly.
"I want her to die," Lux says bluntly with a shrug.
"A very final response," Izzy admits, zir pupils turning into exclamation points briefly before settling back into circles. Or perhaps periods. A final ending to a sentence. "And, bluntly, probably the only way to ensure all of those things, when it comes to vampires."
Ze leans zir chin on zir hand, turning to look at Lumi. "At the least, I think probably a message to the Sakima to find out whose family she's part of is the beginning of this work. Because ... "
"Honestly, what a fucking ding dong. You think someone's not human, and you start out by threatening their links to the human world, and their partners?"
"That's a good summary of my feelings," Lumi says to Izzy with a nod. "It seems like a really good way to find yourself buried in a ding dong ditch." Is she making a joke? It's not a very good one, if she is, but she seems to be. "It certainly leaves me with some question I'll need to find some answers for, but checking in with the Sakima is a good idea. I can't imagine that she'll be pleased by any of this news either."
Jack looks extremely uncomfortable at the talk of death, but doesn't say anything else about it. It's not as if any of them are wrong. "Went from zero to a hundred real quick, with her. I don't think she was expecting me not to take the bribe, she...seemed frustrated. Mentioned that this keeps happening to her, here."
Lux looks between them, then exhales a breath of relief to see them taking things as seriously as they had. "Thanks. I trust you two will know how to take care of things. And, for transparency--Mearcstapa knows too, and I'm pretty sure he's contacted some of the vampires he knows already about it. But I don't know the details there."
"You're a union guy. What, did she think you were a cop or something, trying to bribe you?" Izzy scoffs audibly, and then glances aside at Lumi for a moment. "That was a horrible joke." Total deadpan, and their pupils flicker for a moment, a frame's worth of change in the literally animated Winter. "Mmm. Well, I mean, we're not going to pick up the whole of it. But I would recommend that you," and here zir attention swings to Jack, "get acquainted with the Sakima. It's my understanding that Mearcstapa has her contact info. Find out who her family head is, and then circle back with us."
"No it wasn't," Lumi says with an utterly mild tone. "It was hilarious. You just don't have a sense of humor." Her gaze goes back to Jack and she adds, "Izzy's right. If Mearcstapa doesn't want to make that introduction, then we probably can. Regardless, I'm confident she'll hear you out."
"I uh...I can do that, yeah." Jack nods. "Thanks for...I mean for taking this seriously. She...this whole fucking situation..." He shakes his head. "'S a fucking mess. So. Thank you."
"She was probably taking advantage of Jack's desperation. The union is on strike and people are at risk of loosing jobs," Lux mutters. "Fucking taking advantage of people like that..." Their head shakes angrily, before they look back towards Jack, watching his reaction to that. Seeing that he takes it alright, Lux lets out another breath. "Yeah. Thank you both."
A vague gesture with one hand, zir inky palm turned up; a blotch of blue blossoms in the middle of zir palm. "They're fucking predators. You can only expect so much of them. It's kind of like being mad at a shark for biting something that looks like a seal. But that doesn't mean we tolerate it when a fun comes up next to one of ours and starts circling." Izzy slings zirself up out of zir chair. "Do you need an intro to the Sakima? We can make that happen. Otherwise, just... keep us in the loop. And if something -- really immediate happens... "
"I'll talk to Mearcstapa, if he's not up for it I can...ask Lux to get in contact with you?" How does one even contact on of the Winter Knights, if not through another Winter?
"Contrary to appearances, I do take things seriously sometimes," Lumi continues in her monotone. Joke? Reproach? Some of each? Who knows! "Fortunately, the Sakima and the people she surrounds herself with make this city's vampires a lot more tolerable than other places I've lived. The worst of them tend to get weeded out pretty quickly, at least by vampire standards of quick."
"I'm sure Mearcstapa will be more than happy to introduce you," Lux says with a nod.
"Then we're settled," agrees Izzy, and ze digs in zir pocket, passing over a card to Jack. "If she threatens you again, or sends one of her goons after you or some nonsense like that -- if you're in immediate danger -- call us. Right away. One of us will get messages on this line immediately."
"Ah -" He takes the card and glances at it before putting it into the pocket of his jeans. "Thanks. I've been thinking about...maybe spending some time this side of the Hedge, for a while, but...still gotta go to work. And they'd miss me on the picket line. I hope I won't need to call you."
"I hope so too," Lumi says with a nod. "Hopefully we'll find a way to resolve this all that doesn't involve conflict between our people and them. I'm confident, though."
"Hopefully. Anything else you need from us?" Lux asks.
A pause, and Izzy presses zir lips together. "Don't get killed."
Jack huffs out a small laugh. "Not planning on it, 'f I can help it. And you better not be, either." He nudges Lux, mostly joking.
Lumi's gaze fixes on Lux with that last question and she says, in precisely the same tone as every other word she's spoken in the meeting, "perhaps a bit more discretion in public places, as well." To Jack she just says, "stay safe. Nothing would make me happier than to continue seeing you around for a long time to come." Still no change in tone or expression.
"Do my best." Lux huffs. "...Yeah. Got it. More discretion," they mutter softer, then stand, taking Jack's hand again. "See you two around."
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