| From: | Paul J. Adam Shadowtk@********.demon.co.uk |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Pigeons and Crumbs |
| Date: | Thu, 27 May 1999 00:03:01 +0100 |
>>>>>[Look, Boss.... I was going over the tapes and I found this.
I watched enough to realise it was personal and then I chopped that whole
tape out and dumped it to mail.
If there's anything there I need to know, tell me, otherwise I figure I
should forget all about it.
You okay?
+++++begin video
Mani walks in, to see Easy sitting, head in her hands.
"My lady?" the Sufi asks at once: in one eyeblink he's in the doorway, in
the next he's kneeling by his side.
Easy looks up, and there's a surprise: she's slightly hollow-eyed, and while
there's no way for her alabaster skin to get much paler, there are dark
shadows under her eyes. "Mani. Sorry. I was thinking, not paying
attention."
"Something ails you?"
"Sure." Easy shakes her head. "I'm still wondering if hiring Beverly was
a
mistake."
"She has an admirable reputation," Mani ventures. "And she has been
a...trustworthy foe."
"Yeah. And I need the help right now, since Descabiere is likely to figure
out that I'm at least friendly with Luigi and Kimura any day now. And
when that happens, we're at war with most of the Fort Lewis Mob.
Assuming it doesn't spread any further than that. All it needs is someone
to connect us to Vegas and the whole _SeattIe_ Mob will be down on us,
and they're already sniffing around Harley. It's a big sloppy shit sandwich,
Mani, and we're all going to have to take a bite."
There is a soft rapping at the door which breaks Easy's line of thought.
"But that can wait. Come in!"
The door opens slowly, and Seren enters still wearing her outdoor poncho
and removing her filter-mask, which she places under her arm. She can't
seem to hold eye-contact with Easy for long, glancing away from her and
around the room and avoiding meeting Mani's now icier gaze.
"You're here early," Easy says with brightened spirits, sounding more
pleased than surprised. When Seren doesn't immediately respond, and
instead lowers her eyes, Easy's expression clouds. "What's wrong."
"I...," Seren's pauses, anxious, bordering on trepidation, "I'm not going
to
perform at the 'Eight tonight." This now had Easy's full attention. "Fact
is, I'm not going to play here anymore. I'm leaving."
"What's wrong? Something happened to you?" Easy's tone has a sudden
lethal lack of emotion, implying dire things to someone who would
threaten her friend. "Those people who were looking for you?" When she
gets no response, "Some other problem? Some of Descabiere's guys
threaten you?"
"No," Seren says flatly and shakes her head. "It's not that at all."
She waits
for the glint of threat-response to go out of Easy's eyes. "I'm just leaving.
It's...time I left. But, I figured you needed to hear it from me, so you
won't try to track me down."
The admission draws Mani closer to the conversation, and leaves Easy
visibly shocked. "I don't understand. What do you mean, it's time you
left?"
"Just that. I never said I'd stay here forever." She says, locked in some
internal debate. "I...I'm not who you think I am." She chooses her words
as though they were steps through a minefield now, watching the conflict
of emotions that cross Easy and Mani's faces. "I'm no singer. At least,
that's not what I'm _supposed_ to be. And it isn't why I came here."
Something dark is definitely implied beneath the words.
Easy flexes her gloved hands; studies her fingertips as the silver blades
extend, then retract. It seems to calm her; she seems to need it.
"When I belonged to my master," Seren almost spits the word out, "he
eventually got tired of looking at someone who forced herself to become
the reflection of his darkest needs and desires. I sickened him, so he had
_other_ uses found for his 'pet.' In time, when I wasn't betraying his
friends as they used me as an exotic plaything, I was luring his enemies to
their deaths."
Mani's tone is deathly cold: "And my lady Easy?"
"...has nothing to fear from me. My former master has been dead a long
while now...and so are the ones who knew me and would come after me.
I killed the last myself." The assurance does little to calm Mani.
Easy sighs. "So, that story was all a lie?"
"Mostly," Seren replies with strangely ambivalent calm, "as with almost
everything else I've said. Just enough truth to make the lies seem real."
The Elven samurai leans back in her chair, reaches for her Dunhill
cigarettes, lights one: so obviously, totally, unconcerned by this news it's
almost pathetic. "So, when you said you loved me?"
Seren cuts her off, "Don't people like to hear that sort of thing? _You_
did." Her mood swings away from confidence. "If I wanted to get close
to you, that seemed like the best way."
"In other words, I was just convenient." Easy's icy tone breaks for a
moment. "Even after we...?"
"After we what?" Seren asks rhetorically. "_Making_ love, and being _in_
love don't often go together in this world." Seren shakes her head with a
hint of gentleness and runs her fingers through her hair as strands fall to
obscure her eyes.
Easy needs time to let it sink in, but finally asks, "You didn't do it in order
to kill me. You're not spying on me, or you'd have vanished, not told me
you were leaving. So, why?" Her tone is calm, level and polite.
"You're the Ice Queen of Tarislar. A killer without conscience or fear.
You're everything I have ever dreamed to be." The turn of Seren's voice
at the end makes the admission ambiguous as to whether it contains
praise or derision. "Or so the legend went...." She looks away.
The room is silent.
Seren continues, "I studied you, I wanted to _be_ you. But in truth, all I
found was a frightened little girl who is still cowering in the back of a
police van. She may be buried under tons of ice, but she's still lashing out
at the men who hurt her." She looks out the office window into the bar.
"In truth...we're more alike than I wanted to believe.."
"You think so?" Easy cocks her head slightly. "Then one of us is very
wrong." There's a calm distance in her voice now, and she's far too
relaxed for the circumstances. "So, why _now_?"
"Things change...things happen." Seren's eyes linger on Mani for a
moment before turning back to Easy. "Then one day you wake up not
wanting to lie. To be something you aren't. But then, when you're
_what_ I am, you do that a lot more than you'd want." With that, ripples
pass over her body, making it appear fluid for a brief moment as it also
changes in color. What is left behind is shorter by a few inches and has
skin and hair that are both bone-white. It blinks its albino-pink eyes and
brushes its longer hair from off its longer, doe-like ears with one hand.
The Sufi mercenary almost falls out of his chair. "Quicksilver?" Mani says
finally. There is much more behind the words than is said.
"Yes," it replies in a fae voice that is deeper and more melodic.
"I... know you, don't I?" Easy asks, still coldly curious. "What other
shapes
did you wear?"
"No other's that _you've_ seen. The first time we met, I was as I am now
at a Killing Zone concert. Looking as I do, most people remember; it was
a dangerously foolish vanity. But then, looking as I do, most people would
never let me get close to them," Quicksilver shrugs. "So, I became a more
welcome illusion. I became the Seren you thought you knew. You
shouldn't have had to learn about it this way, but this is to make you
understand that I should go." She begins to turn away.
"I think you have more to tell." Easy replies, still far too calm, and
dangerously firm.
"Why?" Quicksilver shows an almost blatant disregard for her safety with
the cuttingly sharp question and a too-quick turn to face Easy. "The Seren
_you_ thought you knew is a figment of your imagination. She was _just_
what you wanted to see. This...." she holds up her hand regarding it with
no small amount of disgust, "This is just the beginning. And you really
don't want to know the rest."
Mani is rigidly tense. Easy, by contrast, seems casual, relaxed and
comfortable. "How flattering," is all she says.
Seren/Quicksilver gives a disgusted shake of her head, "What I don't get is
why a creature like me could get so close to you, so fast, when you
already have someone. And you mean more to her than her own life."
When that generates no response, Quicksilver cocks her head and narrows
her eyes. "Do men scare you _that_ much?" Quicksilver asks as Easy
remains impassive. A cold smile of irony crosses her lips. "You really
never guessed, did you?" She looks, deliberately, at the tall Sufi that sits
in the corner. "See. This is what happens when you lie: it's bad when
they find out, but sometimes worse when they don't."
"What's Mani got to do with it?" Easy shows a hint of curiosity.
Seren says calmly, "I've already given myself away to her. I have no more
to lose."
"My lady," Mani begins, pauses: looks beseechingly at Seren, then at Easy,
and drops to his knee. "My lady. I have deceived you."
"_You're_ a woman?" This is one of the very few times the Elven samurai's
been visibly shocked. "You should have told me." The blonde killer shakes
her head. "You should have..." She raises her hand as if to reach to
Mani, glances at it and lowers it at once, but not before bright crimson
droplets fall to splash on the desk. Clenching her fists, she's driven her
razors deep into her palms.
Only now aware of that, Mani rises at once; moving to try to gently pry
open Easy's hands before she injures herself any further.
"I...." Quicksilver stops herself, for an instant shock and grief play across
her features, but disappear as Mani gives her a deadly look. "I guess the
right thing to do now would be to leave you two alone," she mutters
softly, backing away. While they are distracted, Seren takes this
opportunity to pull the poncho's hood over her head, hiding her features;
and before either Mani or Easy realize or act to stop her, she's out the
door.
+++++end video]<<<<<
-- Vincenzo <00:02:34/06-27-60>
