June 10th - Quiet Night at Court
With the Lasa gone it seemed the city was happy to quiet down. Court had been pleasantly quiet all evening, except for a brief outburst by Jezebel at Sariel…but it resolved itself quickly and without much fuss. Now there was just a small meeting with Sariel to end the night…He’s been behaving himself so well…other than that text message earlier. Here’s hoping this continues…Monica and Viktor walked into a room off the side of the main gathering. Sariel was sitting in a chair, with his feet up and flipping pages in a book. He looked up as they entered again, "Note to self.. Scratch is a loud mouth and an idiot.." He put his book away and looked up to Monica, "right.. Information time?
“If you'd please.”
Sariel nodded as he rubbed his face, "Note.. this took some blood to do.. but there is a 10 million dollar bounty on Guiliana La Porta.. the person is trying to use ghosts and others so much that they are allowed to do anything to her body before her final death.. including running a train on her.."
Rage! Threat to one of ours! How DARE they!?!Monica raised an eyebrow at that and took a slow breath before answering. "Do you know who put this bounty out?" Viktor looked to the floor, his face emotionless.
Sariel nodded, "An Arab is acting as an accountant of someone who wants to gain a higher rep within the area to get a better feel for power and such.. in "da clubs" as it were .. if you drop that you is looking.. he find you fast.”
Monica tilted her head slightly at Sariel, seeming amused. "Interesting...any method to get a hold of this Arab?" I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak Ebonics before…
Sariel smiled, "Carrot on a string.."
Jezebel Dragolescu walked into the room, smiling
“Mmm.” Monica smiled at Sariel, then turned and smileed to Jezebel, nodding her head. "Good evening Lady Dragolescu." Was he talking about how to find the Arab or that he was a carrot for Jezebel…She can feel her own unease echoed back through the mental link she’s sharing with Viktor.
Viktor looked to Jezebel and nodded, "Lady Dragolescu."
Jezebel nodded to Monica and Viktor, then took a place at Sariel's side, "Evening to you both" The unease increased, although it was getting hard to tell her worry apart from Viktor’s.
Sariel nodded as he looked to Jezebel, "Hello Jezebel Dragolescu.. "
“Good evening, Reverend.”
Sariel nodded to Monica, "so.. Dropping the line would be the easiest way to get them in to talk.. since.. the info travels all clubs"
Jezebel stood up straighter, looking between the others. Monica nodded to Sariel as he picked the conversation back up. "I'll try that, thank you Sariel."
The conversation turned to discussion of Sariel’s command of Ebonics, ghosts, and certain matters of the Dragons. After a few more minutes Prince la Porta entered with Segei and Natoli following behind her. The discussion somehow turned to Sariel’s lack of Acknowledgement within Athens and resolving that, as well as all the things he had done for the city in the past. Viktor and Jezebel went off to the side to speak of more Covenant matters and the others talked of Scratch and Elysium for several minutes. Once the conversation quieted Monica turned to Sariel, smiling just a bit too sweetly.
“By the way...Sariel dear?”
Sariel tilted his head and looked to Monica, "Oh.. I'm dear now?"
“Only when I'm either feeling sorry for you or irritated at you.”
Sariel blinked, "when I'm dealing in the - oh shit.. "
“I know texting is, by necessity, short-hand...but be careful when sending colorful descriptions of people I care about to make sure you note that -you- are not calling them those things?”
Sariel blinked, "Quoting the Ghost.."
“Yes, but it didn't -say- that.”
Giuliana continued in the previous vein of conversation, not quite having caught the gist of the quips between Sariel and Monica. "Reverand St. James is Acknowledged. Scratch is banned until he settles the matter with me... do you think that might enflame the issue? Perhaps I should just wait for him to show up and cause more problems." Giuliana then looked at Sariel, "Say what?"
Monica looked down at Giuliana and quickly said, "Nothing dear..”
Sariel sighed, and looked at the prince, "the ghost had two names for you.. Sicilian Slut form Hell.. and Princess Pale Perky Tits.."
Giuliana drew her brows together and Monica sighed as Sariel said those things, and she gave him a rather irritated glare. Sergei even shifted a bit uncomfortably as he heard Sariel speak.
"I'm not Sicilian....." She blinked, "I.... I...." She was obviously speechless.
Monica spoke up in the silence. “Sariel...I swear....if it takes me a century I'm going to explain etiquette and propriety to you.” She clearly sounded annoyed and pinned Sariel with a full glare.
Giuliana frowned again, looking down in thought as Sariel looked at Monica, "what.. Should I written them down and showed her what the ghost had said? though I have to say.. the second one I could see as a compliment.. "
“...I tiptoed around it on -purpose-. And then quickly tried to distract her...those are what we call 'subtle clues'. You should have just told her they were unflattering and offensive and left it at that!”
Giuliana frowned further and shot Monica a look.
Sariel blinked, "Subtle has been equated to me as a mallet crushing an egg"
Monica sighed and threw her hands up in surrender.
Monica sat back in the chair as the conversation flowed around her - ignoring the rest and concentrating on keeping her irritation from showing. People coming into the room brought her attention back to the people. She looked up at Sergei and smiled, “Long night old man?”
Sergei looked to Monica and back to the door and seemed to come out of his thoughts a bit... "Oh... a bit yes.. My apologies Madame Thibedeaux" He moved over to the door and opened it the rest of the way to let everyone come in before shutting the door after them.
Giuliana spoke up, looking over at Monica. "Sergei got contacted that group that tried to assassi..... oh.... you guys might not have heard...."
Monica blinked and very slowly turned to Giuliana, one eyebrow slowly raised. She did not just almost say assassinated…
"I have been under protection all night, Monica. Don't look at me like that."
Monica continued to look at Giuliana as she took out her phone, and made an exaggerated amount of pokes.. “Hmm..no missed calls or text messages....”
Giuliana sighed and pulled out her Blackberry and tapped on it. She then put it away and smiled at Monica. Monica glanced down at her phone and the message there. I had multiple assassination attempts tonight. The beast within her raged at both the knowledge and the knowledge that she hadn’t been informed of such a massive threat. She is JUST NOW telling me? And like this!? Bitch! Pompous arrogant bitch! Viktor’s mind reeled as Monica shared the information with him and their rage merely fed each other’s beasts’ anger. Finally Monica stood, her expression stony. “If you will all excuse me..I'm going to wait by the door until Viktor is done.” Monica then performed a complete, old fashioned curtsy to Giuliana and walked over to the door, leaning on it as she waited.
Viktor finished his conversation with Jezebel and she left to see a man about her cracked foundation. A few moments later Viktor, Monica, Giuliana, Natoli and Sergei all walked out together. The tension was thick…