// 022. [voice]

[lestrangestone]

[Ready, set: troll.]

Did everyone enjoy the festivities? Forget your troubles for just a bit? Try on a new face?

I hope everyone has found what's been missing.

Comments

[voice]

[threedoctorates]

Something's been missing?

[voice]

[lestrangestone]

Hasn't it?

[Inexplicable self-satisfied verbal grin, Dr. Reid.]

[voice]

[threedoctorates]

[Even knowing about people missing things, he doesn't believe that what's she's been talking about. After all, this is Bella and everything the woman says has about twelve different meanings.]

You enjoy speaking in riddles, don't you?

[voice]

[lestrangestone]

It's not a riddle at all. You'd know if something were absent.

[But only two out of twelve meanings make sense!]

voice

[teethandtonic]

So glad I strolled in after the face changin' and missin' belongings. No lie.

voice

[lestrangestone]

Changing faces is sometimes entertaining. Although, it would depend on which side of the mask one is on, wouldn't it? You missed a magnificent party.

[Well, not so much the party, but the stalking and kidnapping? Yeah, pretty magnificent. And she's just being so polite today. Why say it directly when she can milk every reply for some kind of murky response that'll keep Lupin on edge?]

I should hope you aren't lying.

voice

[teethandtonic]

Fun can always be had on either side, I'm quite sure.

I'll catch th'next one.

[well, he's no idea that her reply is more or less being used to hold the attention of some chap he doesn't know, but... hey, no harm done. he's still pretty sure that the best kind of mask is the one you strip off someone else and wire to your own. some thing of a macabre-ade? idk.]

Me? Never.

voice /your keywords are cracking me up

[lestrangestone]

You likely will.

Always count on Anatole to cover up its dirty little secrets with a party. What's a city full of death when one can play games under a hundred little lights?

[She likes her own version of people-lights better.]

I've seen better lights.

voice

[justasimple]

I... should hope so. It's bothersome to have possessions taken away without warning.

voice

[lestrangestone]

There were warnings. [A little tut-tut of her tongue.] Some may have been to distracted to heed them.

At least the losses seem to be trivial.

voice

[justasimple]

[Oh, were there?] Some of us are quite busy, I'm afraid. [Meaning, he probably didn't care to look for them. No mononoke, no effort.]

Yet irritating all the same.

voice

[lestrangestone]

Some of us are. [Take her, for instance. Torture is arduous fun work.]

[lumenrelegandus]

[They'd drifted together and apart all evening, talking to various people, and it had been with great relief to know he could leave her side to talk to Shirley or Io truly without bothering Tonks at all-

except it had been after talking with Io that he'd been unable to find Tonks again. Eventually he'd forced himself to stop searching, not be frantic at the other guests, and didn't even leave a message on her forge, because he assumed that was why; he'd taken too long to be honest about Io to Tonks and had done something (as usual) unforgivable, and he should just respect her space for a night-

But suddenly that look in Bellatrix's eyes flooded in on him the certainty, forgotten only in the wash of guilt and self-blame but shouldn't have been, that that wasn't Tonks. She would never just slip away. She'd confront and have out with it- she would never leave without saying anythingHe stands from his desk at his office in the dojo, the charmed forge automatically adjusting to frame him, so doing putting on screen the decorative swords

voice

[lestrangestone]

[She's smiling at him, but resists the urge to switch to video. Was he trying to somehow look threatening, behind all that useless weaponry he didn't know how to wield?

Pitiful.

But also amusing.]

Perhaps you should be asking yourself that question. Is your house very much in order, Remus? Is everything in its place?

voice

[lumenrelegandus]

Is yours, [the only word he can call her that will sting] Aunt?

[The faintest hint is enough to know what she's talking about.

He knows her.

He knows both of them.

He can't offer to do anything. He can't offer himself in her stead. He can't ask what she wants. Because this is what she wants. She will always go for the pain, not the kill. She's always wanted Tonks dead and Lupin broken and oh look, the moment it's true again, two for one…

But (GOD) if he goes after Bellatrix out of hatred, without confirming that's it's really anything to do with… anything could happen in Anatole, anything could have happened to Tonks, and if she does need help he can't go for a diversion. Which is exactly what this could be, if Bellatrix wasn't responsible but in the know, and taking advantage.

Or, if Bellatrix was only fishing, and was hoping to take advantage of whatever she might learn right now from him…

Mind reeling, and burning from stomach to throat with dread at what he was inviting, how she could fulfill…]Not enough. If you want me to

voice

[lestrangestone]

[Distaste is clear even in the sigh she directs at him, but the fact that he took the bait?]

You're already suffering, dog. You wouldn't be barking if you weren't.

[She'd like to convince him, she'd like him to hear every scream, but she'd like to leave him hanging just a little more. She's learned a little moderation from her Mistress.

Luciela isn't gone, not when the statue stands tall - she'd just moved on past the Mist and to better (higher) places. Perhaps she is where Voldemort is now - where they could both watch over her.]

[Voice]

[femininehermes]

What are you hiding? [Hermione's skeptical tone doesn't waver. Bellatrix wouldn't ask such frivolous questions unless...] Lestrange.

[Voice]

[lestrangestone]

Not so clever after all, then? [And she's not hiding. She's taunting.]

[And she's talking to herself now, musing aloud. Making some sort of decision, perhaps?]

The Forge is such an interesting device. It speaks in truths just as much as it lies.

[Voice]

[femininehermes]

That tells me nothing. [Though, not exactly. Her fears are growing.] You should be proud of your accomplishment. Go on, tell the world.

[Voice]

[lestrangestone]

[As it should be. Besides, you're supposed to be such a clever witch, (for a mudblood) - you figure it out, then.]

I won't need to. [Her work will be long lasting and tell its own tales.]