purgatory ; alice and pace
Even Gods needed to cover their tracks, apparently. Or so Alice had learned the hard way when shedding her skin as a divine deity and taking the mask of a mortal for the first time; learning her actions needed to be justified, or humans would grow suspicious. Having figured this out some time ago, she had not made the same mistake in New York, upon constructing her new empire. Instead, she'd gone about it the right way, and left no room for the infernal mortal law and their ignoramus policemen to get in her way.
In terms of her business, she had a front that surely anyone with half knowledge of who she really was could appreciate: she owned a high-end lingerie boutique. Not only was it her cover story, but it served as her office, and a real source of income - a small bit of fun, picking out the most luxurious, beautiful garments she could find and selling them for an absorbent price. Alice didn't often find herself in her office at the back of Venus (an apt name that made her chuckle; Aphrodite would have been too blunt), for most of her deals could be done from home, or in several venues throughout the city. But today she was pouring over her records of last month's transactions, seeing as December had started, and she had had some inkling that her head Bronx dealer was taking an extra percentage of his deals for some time now.
She'd instructed the shop girls that she was not to be disturbed with a glint in her eye that seemed to imply on pain of death, so when the door creaked open and an olive face peaked through, Alice had half a mind to slam the door down on her neck. "I told you I wasn't to be interrupted." Her eyes grew into bleak points, and the girl seemed to falter. "Ah - I - I know Miss, b-but there's a man here who says he has an appointment with you." Now she was even closer to severing the girls spinal cord. "What are you talking about? I'm meeting no one, now close the door and - " She stopped when the door opened wider and a new figure came into view, cutting her words off. She exhaled deeply, setting her papers down and leaning back, running a tongue over her teeth. "Out." She said simply to the girl, not bothering to look at her but knowing she would receive the message nonetheless.
"And you..." She trailed off, eyes flitting up and down the man who had once ruled oceans and called upon tides. "Sit."