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@namedmyanger
hi, you can delete this if you want, but i wanted to tell you i think you have a kind and brave heart. sometimes we go through things that want to crush us, but it can't overshadow the rest of our lives. it's important to keep looking for the good in people!
Hm. I believe you’ve made that a little easier for all of us.
I’m glad to hear it. Mine was quiet, I sometimes forget until it’s here.
I trust everyone had a pleasant holiday.
namedmyanger:
“They work for Regulators by choice all the time,” Nemo scowled. She hadn’t put her mask up this time, driving in faceless tension. “Access to power, to control. The ability to hurt or kill without consequence. Revenge. Xenophobia. There are more reasons that not for someone like him to do what he does.” She ground her teeth together, the sound almost audible over the hum of the engine.
“…Are you an ex-informant? Ex-Regulator? Is that why they are interested in detaining you?” She asked bluntly.
“I don’t disagree, I just…” Would any explanation suffice? She’d try. “The way he answered my questions makes me think he would have just went out and said if those were his reasons.” It was a weak argument, she knew. It wasn’t like she gave him much of a chance to elaborate on his answers when she kicked him.
This next bit was tough. She didn’t know how Nemo would react.
“Ex-Regulator. …I rebelled a long time ago.”
Nemo considered this information, rolling it around in her head and examining it from all angles. For a moment there was silence in the car, broken only by the static click of the turn signal.
“I see.” She said finally. “And what are you doing about it now? Did you just run away from a life you no longer cared for?”
sendusablade:
Charlie leaned forward and braced her arms on top of the glove compartment, letting her forehead rest on her hands. Then, a long sigh of her own escaped her.
“’Have my doubts about people like him working for Regulators by choice.” She muttered, staring down at her own feet. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s stupid. No, it probably is.” She bit her lip, trying not to tear up. This whole night had been a rollercoaster of emotions.
“I know what it’s like to be a part of that system.” She admitted, unsure if Nemo would pick up what she was laying down and if that’d lead to any danger. “I’ve…been given chances I didn’t deserve either.”
“They work for Regulators by choice all the time,” Nemo scowled. She hadn’t put her mask up this time, driving in faceless tension. “Access to power, to control. The ability to hurt or kill without consequence. Revenge. Xenophobia. There are more reasons that not for someone like him to do what he does.” She ground her teeth together, the sound almost audible over the hum of the engine.
“...Are you an ex-informant? Ex-Regulator? Is that why they are interested in detaining you?” She asked bluntly.
“Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our table.”
— W.H. Auden.
stealoncepaytwice:
Isfet was too exhausted and baffled by the night’s events to bother hiding his cringe when Nemo pulled him close. He didn’t respond. How could he? What possible response could he have to that? To the whole situation? That wouldn’t make either of them change their minds, anyway. He might be an impulsive idiot, but he wasn’t suicidal. He couldn’t pretend he wasn’t at least somewhat grateful to be crawling out of this alive.
Maybe grateful wasn’t the right word. Gratitude didn’t feel right. Grateful to… Charlie? For letting him off the hook? That felt wrong. This all felt wrong. Everything was mixed up. Like he was suffering whiplash on top of everything else.
…This wasn’t exactly the time to be examining any of it though. All he could do was sit back up and scoot away from the car, baffled. He didn’t meet Charlie’s last gaze.
Nemo slid into the driver’s seat and mechanically shut the door, buckled, turned the ignition. Waited for Charlie to be situated. Then she let out a long, low breath, and maneuvered the car back towards the road. She purposefully came a little too close to Isfet for comfort--but that was her last intimidation. The headlights vanished in a cloud of dust, and he was alone in the dark.
A few moments of silence passed. Then Nemo finally spoke into the tense interior of the car. “That man tried to turn you into the Regulators. I can’t imagine it was for a pleasant purpose. So why do you want to give him a second chance?”
namedmyanger:
Nemo gasped in shock and fear that she’d shot Charlie when the other woman closed her hand around the gun, and a pulse of electricity shot down her arm and into Charlie’s. Not enough to cause permanent damage, but enough to push her away, her hand burned from contact with the gun.
Once she realized that the bullet had hit dirt, and that neither had her instinctive shock gone overboard, Nemo swore and advanced on the other woman, grabbing her upper arm and shaking it. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I could have shot you!” She rasped, holstering the gun forcefully. “The stupidest moment possible to get cold feet! What do you mean, we can’t?”
She paused then, slowly let go of Charlie’s arm, and took a deep breath. “/Why/ are you changing your mind.”
sendusablade:
Pain shot up Charlie’s arm, forcing her to let go of the gun and knocked her back, making her lose her balance. If Nemo hadn’t grabbed her upper arm, she would have stumbled onto the ground. The woman took Nemo’s tirade in silence, agreeing that what she just did was extremely stupid. No arguing there. She shouldn’t have agreed in the first place.
Once she was let go, she automatically held the arm that had been abused the most and straightened herself.
“We shouldn’t-” She looked away, embarrassed by the way in which she went about this whole thing. Embarrassed by the way she was previously conflicted on a principal that she typically held firm in her heart just because it was personal. “No one would actively choose the life he’s living for fun. We can’t take away his ability to change.”
Isfet continued watching, listening. It seemed his death wasn’t quite so imminent now, but still his shoulders stayed up defensively regardless. His expression was still surprised, baffled, shaken, but now with a growing sense of confusion. His brows started to furrow as Charlie explained.
He wouldn’t say it, of course, but that was about the dumbest thing Charlie had said tonight.
It was probably a good thing that Charlie couldn’t see Nemo’s expression through her mask. She wanted to argue; to point out that this man had killed in the Regulators’ name, by his own admission—and that he likely would again. That given their positions were switched, he wouldn’t offer Charlie the same mercy.
But she didn’t. If Charlie was willing to grab the barrel of a gun over it, her mind was clearly made up.
Nemo turned stiffly and walked back over to Isfet, giving him another kick in the middle before hauling him up by the scruff. She put her mask against his ear and hissed. “Hear that, you miserable pest? You get another night to live. But next time I catch you, Charlie won’t be here to be noble on your behalf. Remember that.” She dropped him and turned away. He could figure his own way out of his binds.
“Let’s go then,” she said coldly to Charlie.
stealoncepaytwice:
Isfet jumped. Hard. His eyes had slammed shut at the sound, shoulders raised up, head hunched. He didn’t feel any pain. Any new pain, anyway. Was it that instant? No… no, he was still alive. Had his executioner missed? Was this some kind of psychological torture?
His instincts screamed at him not to turn his head and look, but he had to. He had to know what was happening. What was coming. His wide, shaken eyes fell on Charlie. On the gun. On Charlie’s hand on the gun. What…
‘We can’t.’ They can’t… kill him? If he lived through this, he could examine the implications of how his own mind worked, but his first thought was, ‘Why the hell not?’ Not to say he wasn’t glad to still be breathing, if this objection was what it looked like.
He didn’t say anything, just peered over at Charlie with a deer-in-headlights look.
Nemo gasped in shock and fear that she’d shot Charlie when the other woman closed her hand around the gun, and a pulse of electricity shot down her arm and into Charlie’s. Not enough to cause permanent damage, but enough to push her away, her hand burned from contact with the gun.
Once she realized that the bullet had hit dirt, and that neither had her instinctive shock gone overboard, Nemo swore and advanced on the other woman, grabbing her upper arm and shaking it. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? I could have shot you!” She rasped, holstering the gun forcefully. “The stupidest moment possible to get cold feet! What do you mean, we can’t?”
She paused then, slowly let go of Charlie’s arm, and took a deep breath. “/Why/ are you changing your mind.”
namedmyanger:
Nemo looked at her, arms still crossed over her chest. Her mask was blank and impassive, reflecting Charlie’s own angry face. “Hm.” Charlie did not strike her as the type to have experience with…interrogation. “If you are sure there’s nothing else you need to know. I can dispose of him.”
sendusablade:
“Whatever! I don’t care.” She said, throwing her arms up in exasperation. She wasn’t really considering her words or the implication. All she knew was that she wanted everything to…go away.
Isfet was starting to recover from that low blow, only barely aware of their discussion. Just aware enough to know he was fucked. Like there had been any doubts.
He sucked in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Shakily.
Nemo nodded. Turning away from Charlie, she pulled a gun from the holster on her hip. Checked the clip. And then leveled it at Isfet’s head, not even bothering to approach him. She could do it from here—and it wouldn’t matter that she didn’t have a silencer. They were alone, they three, in the dark.
She considered this wretched man lying in the dirt. His implications about lives lost. That he would deliver people to the Regulator machine as often as asked. She became empty. An eye looking at a hand looking at a man. Nemo pulled the trigger.
sendusablade:
Charlie watched him pathetically slide onto the ground, feeling a LITTLE bit bad but definitely not enough to regret it. She paced away towards Nemo, clearly still fuming.
“I don’t have any more questions for him.” She muttered, arms crossed.
Nemo looked at her, arms still crossed over her chest. Her mask was blank and impassive, reflecting Charlie’s own angry face. “Hm.” Charlie did not strike her as the type to have experience with...interrogation. “If you are sure there’s nothing else you need to know. I can dispose of him.”
stealoncepaytwice:
The trunk was dark.
Which was a stupid thing to think. Of course it was dark. But he looked around anyway. No glow-in-the-dark emergency latch. He’d gotten a decent look at the car this time around; this thing was way too old to have that convenient little safety feature. Too old to have a key fob either, so no use running through the frequencies until he hit one that’d pop the trunk.
Not that he’d get very far anyway. Roll himself out of a moving car and onto the pavement? Maybe if someone else saw him it’d be worth it. Hard to ignore someone breaking out of a trunk, even for the staunchest of believers in civil inattention. Not exactly an appealing idea, but better than this.
It was a wasted line of thought, though. He was stuck in here. Most he could do was maybe fuck with the radio stations if either of them, somehow, felt the urge to put some music on. He almost laughed at the thought.
But he didn’t laugh. Here, in the dark of the trunk with nothing to look at and no one else to focus on, it was hard to feel anything but dread.
namedmyanger:
Nemo ‘hmm’ed at Charlie. “I told you that I was a professional. That this is all I do. If this isn’t want you wanted or intended…well. Maybe your anger got the better of you.”
Nevertheless, she followed Charlie’s directions. When the car finally turned off, it was dark and silent. She sat still for a moment before turning to the other woman.
“What did you want, ultimately? What do you want now?”
Charlie wasn’t surprised that Nemo could sense her hesitancy and there was probably some truth to her comment about anger. Still, she didn’t vocalize what she wanted either way until they reached their destination.
“I don’t know. I don’t know yet.” She looked over her shoulder towards the back of the car. “For now I want answers.”
Charlie stepped out of the car and waited for Nemo to let Isfet out, a cold expression on her face.
Nemo watched her, expression hard to read. But she put her mask down, got out of the quiet car, and walked around to pop the trunk.
Isaac was curled up, pale and by now looking as frightened as he ought. Nemo hauled him out, but allowed him the dignity of leaning against the car instead of being thrown to the ground. “Ask whatever you like,” she said stiffly to Charlie. Then she moved around to the side of the car and leaned against it with her arms crossed, peering out into the dark.
namedmyanger:
“Hm. Fine with me. I can drive.” She reached down and hauled Isfet up by the scruff, yanking him back out the door and towards her car at the curb. When Charlie locked up and joined them, he’d have been stowed in the trunk, and the car would be running. Her mask was flipped up again and her fingers drummed on the steering wheel.
“Where do you want to go.”
sendusablade:
Charlie ignored him again, for now, giving Nemo her full attention. Good. Drive. Somewhere that wasn’t their shared apartment. Anywhere.
She looked back as she locked up, an overwhelming feeling of dread in her heart. Then, she shot off a quick text to Noemi before leaving.
Hey, I’m going to be out and about for a bit. Don’t worry about me. I’ll clean up the dirt and…other stuff at the door later.
Once Charlie was in the car, she managed to hide her displeasure in a veneer of coolness that wasn’t present before. This is what she wanted, right?
“I’ll direct you.” She sighed, giving directions to a secluded place outside of town that she was sure no one would bother them at.
“…Sorry. It’s not that I didn’t think you were serious but I didn’t think you’d find him so quickly.”
The trunk was dark.
Which was a stupid thing to think. Of course it was dark. But he looked around anyway. No glow-in-the-dark emergency latch. He’d gotten a decent look at the car this time around; this thing was way too old to have that convenient little safety feature. Too old to have a key fob either, so no use running through the frequencies until he hit one that’d pop the trunk.
Not that he’d get very far anyway. Roll himself out of a moving car and onto the pavement? Maybe if someone else saw him it’d be worth it. Hard to ignore someone breaking out of a trunk, even for the staunchest of believers in civil inattention. Not exactly an appealing idea, but better than this.
It was a wasted line of thought, though. He was stuck in here. Most he could do was maybe fuck with the radio stations if either of them, somehow, felt the urge to put some music on. He almost laughed at the thought.
But he didn’t laugh. Here, in the dark of the trunk with nothing to look at and no one else to focus on, it was hard to feel anything but dread.
Nemo ‘hmm’ed at Charlie. “I told you that I was a professional. That this is all I do. If this isn’t want you wanted or intended...well. Maybe your anger got the better of you.”
Nevertheless, she followed Charlie’s directions. When the car finally turned off, it was dark and silent. She sat still for a moment before turning to the other woman.
“What did you want, ultimately? What do you want now?”
namedmyanger:
Nemo flicked down her mask again when he rolled over, sucking her teeth. “As cavalier as a teenage boy.” She closed the door behind her and then leaned against it, crossing her arms over her chest. Tilting her head at Charlie, she asked with some surprise, “I did tell you I would find him, didn’t I? Would you rather me have just killed him elsewhere?”
sendusablade:
Charlie let out a few breaths, adrenaline waning as her brain caught up to the scene in front of her. Her fear was replaced by rage hearing his stupid voice and seeing his stupid smirk. Gritting her teeth, she planned on responding before Nemo piped up. He didn’t deserve her attention right now anyway.
“No, it’s-” She stood up straight. “I just didn’t think you’d-” She looked to the left, remembering Noemi could be back any second. “We can’t do this here. Let’s…let’s take him somewhere else.” Was she really going along with this? Either way, they all had to go.
Charlie was starting to come into focus. That, and a conversation about the location of his death. He was still just out of it enough not to be completely terrified at the thought. What a fucking novel topic to be having a chat about.
“But I just got here,” he snarked, but this time the words fell completely flat, closer to a muttered aside than anything. He didn’t have it in him to maintain the snarky disposition anymore either, now that the pain was catching up to him. He thought about trying to sit up. Reconsidered.
“Hm. Fine with me. I can drive.” She reached down and hauled Isfet up by the scruff, yanking him back out the door and towards her car at the curb. When Charlie locked up and joined them, he’d have been stowed in the trunk, and the car would be running. Her mask was flipped up again and her fingers drummed on the steering wheel.
“Where do you want to go.”
stealoncepaytwice:
Isfet hadn’t had the mental wherewithal to really track much up to this point. Through hazy half-consciousness, he saw the inside of an unfamiliar car. Felt himself being manhandled and dragged. Heard Charlie’s voice. Oh. Charlie? That didn’t make any sense…
Falling flat on his face helped shake him back into reality a bit (even if it didn’t help with anything else). He’d been snatched up by some anti-Reg vigilante and now Charlie was here? That… sort of made sense.
Oh. This was Charlie’s house. Final say in his fate. He’d been brought to her. Vengeance, or justice, or whatever you wanted to call it. That made sense.
He took whatever satisfaction he could find in noting that Charlie didn’t exactly sound too happy to see him. Little help, but enough to lean into. He realized his hands were bound as he painfully rolled himself off his face and onto his side. He forced his eyes open (barely), enough to try and pinpoint the blurry shape that was Charlie. “Long time no see,” he managed, though in a voice more slurred than he expected. He mustered up the smallest hint of a smirk, while he still had the nerve to try it.
Nemo flicked down her mask again when he rolled over, sucking her teeth. “As cavalier as a teenage boy.” She closed the door behind her and then leaned against it, crossing her arms over her chest. Tilting her head at Charlie, she asked with some surprise, “I did tell you I would find him, didn’t I? Would you rather me have just killed him elsewhere?”
sendusablade:
It had been a busy day for Charlie. She spent most of it shopping around her list of gifts for Christmas, struggling a bit with the abundance of friends she made this year. They all equally deserved the best presents she could muster with her meager salary. Thankfully she managed to get a client over the weekend and had begun the first draft of a shop layout when she received a text from someone unexpected.
On my way with a gift.
A gift? From Nemo? It’s not like they were really pals or anything. Plus, it was too early to be giving gifts, right? Should she have shopped for her too? Fuck. This was awkward. What was worse was that Noemi was still at work so she’d be dealing with her herself.
Knock knock.
That was fast. The frantic woman rushed out of her room over to the front door, opening it without much thought due to the text.
At the door was Nemo, holding a groggy and just-coming-to Isfet under the arms like a drunken miscreant, wire wrapped around his wrists and still locked around his ankle. She had the faceplate of her mask flipped up so Charlie could see who she was.
“Hello Charlie. I apologize for the short notice. But I found your man, so to speak.” She pushed the vampire into the apartment, not caring if he fell on his face. “I thought you might want a final say in his fate.”
stealoncepaytwice:
Isfet wasn’t going to stop trying to get another swipe in just because she had him in a lousy grip, even if it was ultimately a pointless endeavor.
What he didn’t realize was how pointless the attempt was. He didn’t quite register what was happening, only that he was shouting through grit teeth as pain seared down through his arm. His muscles seized, flexed taut. His knife fell from uncontrolled fingers.
When she let go, he all but collapsed, not catching himself with an elbow this time. If the fall back hurt, or jostled his leg, he didn’t pay it any mind. He just gasped a quick recovering breath and looked up at Nemo in undisguised alarm.
“What the fuck,” he spat. The vampire was at a loss for any other words for the moment.
Nemo kicked the knife away idly. It skittered across the floor and came to rest against the far wall. “I suppose a Liminox might disable a regular taser, so perhaps you’ve never had the pleasure. Not as much use against Galvanians as against a victim’s protection, hm? Or as against a cell phone. I wonder what it feels like for you to be on the other end of it. Knowing you are as alone as the people you usually stalk.” She knelt down and peered closely at him. It was probably for the best that he couldn’t see her expression through the mask.
“I could stay here all night, watching you process the irony. But we have somewhere else to be! So, goodbye for now, Isfet.” She reached out and put a palm against his chest. This pulse was greater than the last, enough to quickly and thoroughly knock him out. Not quite enough to stop his heart. Not quite.
Nemo sighed and stood up, looking around the apartment. There was a smear of blood across the cheap linoleum from Isfet’s leg. She didn’t care much; it was time to go. First she pulled out her phone and shot a message. On my way with a gift.
