Everybody knows the deal fell through. I was hoping that I could just blame you.

[painhumbles]

[[OOC: Technically, Trickster Week ends with this post, so if you have something to say to the little bastard, say it now or forever hold your peace... Until he comes back. Whenever that will be. I know not everyone has gotten all the stuff they needed to do with this plot out of the way, so I fully support backdating and all that crap. I'm just

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[bestoweduponus]

Have a tiny girl with a barbie doll head on her finger, Trickster. It's not entirely obvious where she came from; she's just suddenly in front of your brownies, blinking at them slowly.

"What do you think?" she asks her finger idly, tilting her head to the side and smiling vaguely. But then she's looking back at the brownies. And then up at the Trickster finally.

"Poor Kitty," she says in a sing-song voice. "Mommy took Kitty to the vet and the doctor took away his claws. Now Kitty's stuck in a tree."

She breaks into a small bout of giggles and then looks up at the Trickster, a far keener glare in her eyes.

"It's a good thing you're not a cat," Vasumati says in a hushed whisper, just loud enough for him to hear. Her tone makes it clear that this part, this part is important. "You can't reclaw a cat."

[painhumbles]

Um. Okay.

There's some levels of freaky he's not accustomed to and he's pretty sure he's used to freaky. Granted, all he manages to do in response to her creepy, at first, is give her a I'm eating, thank you glower while he finishes off his current brownie. That done, he lays the plate aside and leans forward, looking around like he might be checking to make sure no one's listening, and then practically presses his nose to hers.

And says, "What the hell, kid?"

Made all the funnier by the fact that he's neither whispering nor believes for a second that she's actually a kid. He's older. He's always older.

[bestoweduponus]

Mati ignores him for a second, reaching over to take a brownie. She does not really care if he's sharing the brownies or not. She also doesn't really need a brownie, but she wants it. Lollipops and cookies and brownies and ice cream. Lovely things.

"You don't really want to stay here forever, do you?" she asks, tilting her head to the side as she regards the brownie, breaking it in half and putting the other half back on the plate. "I don't think Kitty likes being stuck in the tree very much. Plenty of birds, but she can't catch any of them because she has no claws."

And there's another giggle and Mati looks back up at the Trickster, giving him a perfectly sweet smile.

"You play with the threads of reality."

It's not a question.

[painhumbles]

Glaaaare. There are all kinds of warning bells going off in his head and the fact that he can't get heads or tails off this brat is enough to put his hackles up.

That sweet smile gets a dark look. He's so far above people playing games with him. "Yeah, and if you don't step off, Kitty's gonna tie your threads in a friggin' knot. How's that sound? Huh?"

And, oh, he understands what she's saying. He understands Cy, after all. That don't mean he likes it.

[whateverthemess]

Murphy wakes up slowly, warm, her head aching just a bit. It takes a moment for her brain to catch up with the rest of her, to register the wrong of where she is as compared to where she was and when it does that she's bolt upright and reaching for her weapon.

...It's in the corner by the door. Opposite the corner that contains one very irritated looking Cooper Hawkes.

Murphy winces and lays back. "How did I get here?"

[monitorthebirds]

Hawkes hrmphs and shrugs. "Dunno. Sounded like someone was tryin' to kick the door in, so I went to see and you were just lyin' there. What the hell happened?"

Pause.

"...Was it that one guy again?"

Glare. Frown. Disapprove. Repeat.

[whateverthemess]

"The one kicking the door?" She smiles faintly. "Possibly. Probably. If he didn't hang around, then I'm assuming yes."

Murphy reaches up to touch the bruise and winces slightly. "Things went kind of wrong. Michael showed up himself and brought friends, which was fine, but we... well, he, banished the thugs and without them around or Michael committing any crime except getting beaten up, there wasn't anything either--well, nothing I could do."

...It suddenly occurs to her that Gabriel might well have done something himself. She chews her lip for a moment before stopping because that, too, makes the side of her face hurt.

[58diamondqueen]

Oh look, she's awake. Vansen wanders over to Murphy and Hawkes, and ordinarily she'd be a bit amused at Hawkes' epic sulk, but just now...

"You know you're an idiot, right?" She pauses a beat, and then adds with a wry smile, "Ma'am." Yeah, she still accepts Murphy's authority and isn't going to tell her not to pull that again, but... really? When does playing the bait ever work out the way you hope it will?

[whateverthemess]

Some time after waking up in the Empress, Murphy's wandering through the Grant and Millennium parks, huddled into her coat. That's one thing she didn't miss during her winged week. Not noticing the cold was kinda nice.

She grins a little when she spots the Trickster plowing through a plate of brownies, strolling up to him like half her face isn't purple and they weren't beating the crap out of people last night. "I would be lying if I said I made them myself, but it's the thought that counts."

[painhumbles]

"I'm still not paying for dinner," he says, around a mouthful of brownie, because this is totally the important thing, plus mentioning that he kinda saved her from inevitable hypothermia an didn't kill the white-blooded freak like he really, really wanted to is so out of the question. If people draw attention to shit like that, they'll actually expect stuff out of you.

Because, God forbid, he develop a reputation for being anything other than the Asshole King of Screwing With Assholes.

[whateverthemess]

"I think I can deal with that." She pulls her hair back, away from her face. "I dodged out of the Empress after the third round of 'what the hell were you thinking' from my people. It's bad for my health, being around you."

She pulls a candy bar from her jacket and unwraps it, doing it with unnecessary slowness and delicacy before she takes a bite. Om nom chocolate. Murphy sighs and shakes her head. "See what I mean?"

[painhumbles]

He moves the brownies off his lap so he can properly spread his arms in a yeah, I know, I'm brilliant gesture. "Awesome. That means I'm doin' my job right. And here's a thought, Murph... Next time you get a suicidal plan stuck in your head.... Let it go." The last is practically whispered and accompanied by a shake of his head.

He would be really pissed if you died, Murphy. And would probably have to kill you for it. A lot.

[diatomic_life]

Kat came to jump on the trampoline, but instead, she is going to stare at Topher with vague astonishment, wanting to know why the hell he's playing such horrible music; it's so horrible she doesn't even have words.

[invitedthemin]

Topher has finally chosen the computer geek's worst case scenario that isn't take a bat to the whole system and that's yank the stupid plug. Granted, he's done that twice now and every time he starts the system up, the music starts again.

The computer dies, the horrible music stops, and he pokes his head out to give Kat, who he is really not going to question being here because he is beyond questioning anything and, anyway, he needs someone to bitch at, a sad puppy look.

"It never stops," he says with the tone of someone has underwent a great trauma.

[diatomic_life]

Kat looks at Topher like a sad panda. She opens her mouth to say that she just wanted to jump on the trampoline but, well, no words right now. This week sucks. She did not want to get subjected to horrible music. Now granted, she hadn't had to listen to it for hours on end, like Topher, but it still makes her sad panda. She doesn't want to come into Topher's office and have evil music playing.

She points at the trampoline. This not talking business is really not okay.

[invitedthemin]

Topher clambers to his feet, hands flailing wildly. "I have rewired this entire system, shut it down, torn through the bare bones of the network, and invented new and unnecessarily elaborate worms that are so efficient, they're like the Terminators of the worm family... And then had to make better worms to kill those worms, because they were too efficient, and still it never stops."

It takes him a minute to notice Kat's pointing and not saying anything to acknowledge his pain and when he finally notices, he just stares at her awkwardly. "...What? ...Why are you pointing? Isn't this usually the part where you verbally explode in a way that makes me wonder if you have a... Respiratory bypass somewhere?"

[andwhosearmy]

Casey just got home when her phone ring. She is not amused to have to turn around and head right back, and she has to wonder why anyone would call her specifically instead of getting the attention of someone actually in the station.

She stops wondering about that when she notices the boy lying in the snow outside. Not so much because it's ceased to be a concern as because she has slightly bigger things to be concerned about. Like the unconscious kid in the snow.

She kneels down beside him and snaps her fingers in front of his face, checking for any sign of consciousness. "Hello? Can you hear me?" Theeere's no reaction. Casey reaches down, rests her fingers on his throat long enough to be sure he's actually alive - slow pulse, cold skin, but the white blood kind of indicates that's less alarming than it would be ordinarily