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[ofcarnvge]

“Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something?”

— Toni Morrison, Beloved

[ofcarnvge]

Unarmed

@annalis-e--shadowofpanem

Continued from here x

Mallory waited a very long moment after Amy's explanation of the process. Her mouth opened, closed.

"...I am starting to understand why you guys were so hard to find..." She laughed with amusement and fascination.

"Holy shit, there are some governments that have one third of this security..." Her eyes were gleaming. Everything about it screamed of that first kick she got from being an agent, the complex MO's, the processes. The addictive focus required to get things right. The adrenaline when the dead dropped key turned in the lockbox or the encrypted page flashed up on a screen.

Left alone, the surveillance agent paused with her thoughts looking between the laptop screen and phone Amy had left. She began. It was a complex process, but Mallory had never needed to be told an operating procedure more than once since her first few training missions. She was a fast learner.

As if she were trying not to consider it too much she got up and discarded her clothes on the floor, holding the documents to verify herself. The first two pictures were captured mechanically, getting everything necessary in the frame. But by the third something had changed in her body language, like she could feel a different set of eyes on her. She found herself looking back at the camera as though there were someone else behind it beyond who or whatever would verify her identity.

She didn't bother putting her clothes back on as she transferred a precise and slightly petulant one million and one dollars.

A text message informed her of the apparent system error, and that her account was up to date. It was done. The redhead haphazardly pulled her clothes back on and pulled up the camera roll.

Delete...delete...Her finger stopped. It was that feeling she'd had in the hallway again. She looked at herself, looking at...someone. Mallory closed the camera app. Leaving the image precisely where it was. Anyone could have made that mistake.

The Viper closed the bedroom door behind her, moving down the stairs to return Amy's phone and rejoin the strange assemblage of a family dinner she'd found herself in.

Go go had been awake since the early hours and stalking the grounds of the house. Floss had glimpsed her perched on the fence near the woods. She knew to leave the once bodyguard be. For her, the next hours did not conform to the sense of routines or conversation or dinner time - all Go go could do was wait.

When Eleanor emerged in the kitchen with the Marcassin Floss laughed and immediately recounted the story of how she'd actually stolen it years ago - a prank she'd played on one of her dubious information gathering missions...The kind Delun had her utilizing her people skills for. She'd switched the bottle out for a ten dollar vintage she'd picked up at a gas station; her apparent connoisseur client had not been able to tell the difference.

The kitchen, once again, became an unlikely home for everyone who occupied it. A disparate gathering, but united by the fact that they all stood upon the cusp of something.

In the lab a hair lay in a petri dish. Upstairs, a well fitted tux and gown hung on the back of the door in a dress bag, with the same tension of a person crouched behind it. In the room that was now sparse for Go go having occupied it, a sword which belonged to a dead man lay inert on top of a chest of drawers; but the legacy of his crimes certainly did not.

In the kitchen, Mallory allowed herself the occasional knowing, silent glance toward Amaterasu and Molly's hand frequently and habitually interlaced with Liss', brushing a bracelet made of a stone older than the world.

Outside, night fell down slowly. Go go Yubari watched the sky go black. Hardening herself to the chill of the English evening. She needed to see the day end.

And she did, with a steel resolve she watched all night like a sentinel, until the red light of dawn creaked into the sky behind the shadow of the woods.

-

In another place, O-ren Ishii pushed open an unlocked door.

#unarmed #I have returned!! Uni consumed me xxx #annalis e shadowofpanem

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非武装 Part 01

6am, Celina, Texas.

Emma, Bebe's nanny dropped the basket of laundry she'd been carrying.

"Don't bother picking that up." O-ren Ishii shut the kitchen door behind her. The woman stared back at the intruder. O-ren immediately assessed her. 40s, athletic, unlikely that Bill would have brought his business home with him. Not a Viper, but far from incompetent.

"You're Emma, right?"

The woman narrowed her eyes. "You get out now or I'll call the police."

The open plan décor of the villa was still gloomy in the morning light. Behind the kitchen counter a pair of seahorse shaped wall sconces glowed with warm light. Cicadas buzzed outside.

O-ren sighed and pulled the handgun out of her bag, laying it on the kitchen counter, but only so she could reach the banded stack of dollar bills beneath it.

She slid the money across the counter toward the other woman.

"That's fifteen thousand dollars, take it, go home. Don't call the police, and you get another twenty thousand tomorrow. It'll be in your account."

The blonde haired woman looked at the money, and then nervously back up at O-ren.

"If you're worried about Bill, he's dead. I killed him. I also mean no harm to Bebe. I'm just meeting someone here. Her mother actually."

Another tense and difficult moment passed. O-ren shut her eyes and took the gun from the counter. There was a palpable exhaustion in her voice when she spoke;

"Emma, please, just take the money."

The nanny snatched the stack of notes from the counter and fled. O-ren breathed a loud sigh of relief. She put the gun back in her bag and walked silently through the modern, minimal villa that Bill called home. Despite the fact that it was Bill's it was undeniably a beautiful house. The Yakuza walked carefully up the floating staircase which wound upward from the lounge.

Behind a wooden door on the landing, in the glow of a nightlight, a four year old girl lay sleeping. Silently O-ren shut the door and walked back downstairs.

She set the bag on the counter and poured a glass of lemonade from a bottle in the fridge. Her calm was eerie, methodical. She sat down at the kitchen table, facing the door.

With every movement she thought about her own childhood. How short it had been. How much had been lost. Somewhere in her soul there was still a small girl she couldnt save. She couldn't go back.

But she could go forward.

The kitchen door opened. O-ren looked up.

"Hello Bee."

[ofcarnvge]

//friends I have had a draft open on this account and half finished for three weeks x I am so looking forward to where this is going - I have only been waylaid by my final uni project - it's a sound installation I'm recording tomorrow.

Please pray for me and the audio equipment x I promise I'm on my way back x

@theshadowsnetwork

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Report: Lissmun has too much power for one individual, and yet we are rendered inert in the face of it...for we are smitten with their creations lol

**me looking at the new shadow with wonder and fascination and also wondering what faceclaim Lissmun has selected as an outright attack on my bisexual health lol**

@theshadowsnetwork

#honestly though the fcs are only as good as they are because the way they are written is so excellent #straight up outdoing denis villeneuve's casting director at being a threat lol

[ofcarnvge]

**me looking at the new shadow with wonder and fascination and also wondering what faceclaim Lissmun has selected as an outright attack on my bisexual health lol**

@theshadowsnetwork

#there are at least three fcs in this fandom that could run me over with a car and I would apologize for damaging their suspension lol #thirst and absurdity

[ofcarnvge]

//Also - a happy albeit belated birthday to @annalis-e--shadowofpanem !! Wishing the delicious cake upon you xxxxxx

//I have a cold and conjunctivitis in both eyes hell with medicine at this point please send practitioners of the dark arts

[ofcarnvge]

//Right, my eyes are functional again...to the drafting x

//I have a cold and conjunctivitis in both eyes hell with medicine at this point please send practitioners of the dark arts

[ofcarnvge]

//I have a cold and conjunctivitis in both eyes hell with medicine at this point please send practitioners of the dark arts

#it is not a good sensation...

[ofcarnvge]

Unarmed

@annalis-e--shadowofpanem

Continued from here x

The screen on the tablet timed out to darkness, left unseen on the bedcovers as Liss and Molly departed the room. It would do for tonight. For now the pull of the kitchen and the last family meal before everyone was called to different corners was greater.

Molly put herself to work with any prep that Cereza would have her do, and life seemed really quite ordinary for a moment. Even when her hand brushed the varnished fruit bowl on the end of the counter and detected the precise colour and texture of cherry wood, one of the first guitars they would buy for Jiayi. She smiled, hearing that first dissonant chord.

-

Floss flexed her fingers a little nervously. Leslie had been through a lot the last few days, and she was hesitant to add any weight to her. She hopes that just maybe she could take some of the pressure from the young Shadow.

"I wanted to talk to you very openly about my thoughts." She began honestly, perching against the edge of the workbench. It was cooler down here in the basement, and the voices in the kitchen seemed far away.

"There is a chance, a small chance, I could produce a gene therapy that would reverse the effects of The Umbrae Somnia conditioning." She raised her hands a little. "However, I don't know what other effects it might have, what other gene expressions are tied to the condition."

Floss bit her lip, wondering for a moment how honest she should be. Ethics won out over any misplaced idea of guarding Leslie's feelings.

"It could be completely free of side effects, if I can crack it. But there is a chance that the gene expression involved is...complex, it could affect anything as innocuous as hair colour to as serious as the functioning of the immune system."

Her fingers did their signature nervous butterfly twitch where they lay folded across her arm.

"I'll take your lead on this, and if it's something you dont want, I will not touch it. But if you do..."

The scientist turned around and pulled a plastic sample jar from a stack of glassware and disorganized containers.

"...All I need to get started is one hair."

-

The cab dropped Mallory at the end of the drive and she stomped back toward the house laden down with her purchases. between the suit cove and the large designer clothing bags she looked like a whole prom waiting to happen.

The front door wasn't locked, and nobody in the kitchen seemed to note her presence especially as she moved through the house and threw the bags on the end of her bed.

An insidious, but honest little voice in the back of her head made her gaze linger on the one which contained the dress...how long has it been since you bought a dress you hoped someone else would like?

She rolled her eyes at herself and wet out into the hall to find Amy. Time to make the strangest hotel booking of her life.

-

Across a vast span of time and distance, a woman with white hair picked up a green pebble from the others that had been scattered on the floor in front of her.

Orlagh, her handmaid wiped the clementine juice from her fingers with a napkin and watched intently.

"What do you think that means?"

Kulani Kerai, Empress of S’ruthan Liar, grinned with a strange fascination and wonder. Orlagh saw the look and her expression sharpened. She knew when Kerai had seen something.

"What is it!?"

Kulani turned the pebble over between her fingers, investing the tiny rock with the richest quantity of reach she could generate. The Great Seer was very capable, but it was so far - even she could only make out the shape of it. Like feeling something in the dark, or trying to remember a dream. The smile stayed on her face. Reach provided eternal.

"I think there's another queen on the board...and not just that..." she put the pebble back down exactly where it had been and the unseen tethers of reach dissipated, rendering once again a stone.

"...something with damp fur and teeth...something big."

#not my best work but requiring the rhythm x #unarmed

[ofcarnvge]

@theshadowsnetwork

//

**Me sitting eating soup and reading the new post for Unarmed like it's the next episode of true detective**

ends

"oh my god but what happens next??"

...rose you're writing it...

crap...right...

#hahaha #bloody brilliant #have you ever read fiction so absorbing you briefly forgot you are partly the author? lol xxxx

[ofcarnvge]

[ofcarnvge]

— emily browning,, (all)

[ofcarnvge]

//I'm here friends - apologies for the long reply wait x university is giving me a kicking x

[ofcarnvge]

Unarmed

@annalis-e--shadowofpanem

Continued from here x

It was a reflex, but as Amy took hold of her collar Mallory braced for a half second. The string of mental calculations probably showed in her expression. Quite what Amy was doing eluded her, and after a moment she decided – rightly or wrongly – that it was a veiled assertion of dominance, that Amy wanted to be nearer to her, even if it was something of a threat.

The envelope landed in her hand, with some distaste from the person who delivered it. For the moment at least Mallory understood the karma in taking distrust on the chin. It would be a while before her intentions rung true.

“I’d like to say you wont regret it…but I get that this is a big deal, and it sounds pretty far from safe. I can at least say it won’t be me that kicks up shit. I’m in this to find out…everything else comes later.”

She folded the envelope in her hand and palmed it into her pocket. Even without feeling the phone buzz in her pocket she could feel the presence of Milo. He’d be cursing her for this. For a precarious second Mallory hovered in the doorway, that slightly mad desire to step closer holding her in place before her feet carried her away down the hall. She paused near the stairs, a laugh catching in her throat. She turned back to Amy, one eyebrow hitched with amusement.

“Also, …mommy?”

-

Mallory knew Cambridge. Not like the back of her hand, not like London. But enough to know where to get the cab to drop her. The bank was the first port of call. The man behind the counter exchanged the envelope for her fresh new account no questions asked.

She decided quickly that the occasion called for two statement outfits - a dress, that had been easy to sort out. The tux needed fitting.

She sat in the tailor’s waiting lounge while Milo asked question after question over the phone.

“So hold up, you’ve seen footage of someone responsible for London? They confessed to it?”

Mallory sat back on the dark, plush sofa.

“Yeah, but it’s a lot more complicated than that. Even she was acting under duress. This thing is an onion.”

“What about O-ren? Do we have problems there?”

Even though Milo couldn’t see her Mallory shook her head. “No. She’s fine. Go go too actually. I kind of can’t believe I’m saying it but they got it, Go go especially. I hope O-ren can talk Beatrix down…”

“She’s the best bet out of all of them.”

“I miss you.”

“Oh Mal, I’m here. Maybe I should finally come see you…”

“No, no way in hell. These people are way more dangerous than anyone Bill ever dealt with.” She paused, the heat going out of her voice. “Please just stay where you are Milo, away, safe.”

“Ok. Want me to keep a bead on O-ren?”

“Yes, let me know where she is.”

A polite cough followed by a curtain being pulled back informed Mallory that she was required for fitting.

“Thanks Milo, I gotta go.”

“Ok, love you dumbass.”

For a whole second Mallory forgot the mad, complex press of the universe against her, and she smiled.

“You too shithead.” She hung up the phone.

When the tailor draped the final product over her arms Mallory turned to the side, looking in the mirror.

“…damn.”

-

“Most anything can be unpicked with enough effort, but it helps to start in the right place. The affected genes will be documented in the original papers, I’ll start there.” Floss mused half to herself and half to the people in the kitchen.

It was good to have a scientific application for her talents again, the scientist was good at people, but the much more microscopic elements of biology had the pleasant characteristic of leaving them in the petri dish where you found them. In a way, gene sequencing was the easy part.

“I’ll talk to Leslie…In fact…” She watched the Shadow come back in from the front lawn, looking if only a little lighter than when she had departed. “…No time like the present.”

Floss got to her feet and followed the younger woman into the corridor.

“Leslie, I wondered if I could ask you something? Can we talk in the lab?”

-

Deng Jia melted away, and Molly gathered Pan in her arms. She placed her cheek to the part of her hair and breathed in. It was a thing so intangible you could almost forget you missed it; the scent of a person you love. Molly’s reach unfurled outward from her hands, just a little, as if she were extending the embrace.

Exhaling, she leant back. The kiss on the back of her hand had a sort of old-fashioned chivalry about it that made Molly beam. She held Liss’ fingers tight.

“I’d marry you tomorrow, right here if I could.” She rolled her shoulders at the lovely simplicity of it. “I honestly don’t mind when or where, as long as it’s us. And as for the house…we’re going to build it. Together. I know there’s a lot of world between us and the future right now, but I’m ok with it…You and Bowen and Jiayi make it all real, I think the world could turn upside-down and I’d keep walking, because I have all of you.”

In an inversion of the gesture Molly took Liss’ hand and kissed it with a smile. Light no longer leaked in around the edges of the curtains. Evening had asserted itself proper.

“Shall we go get dinner started?”

-

The plane was still over the ocean, just about. O-ren found herself strangely empty of anxiety. She looked out over the wing, there was a very light cover of cloud visible below. Whatever was going to happen, she was ok with it.

Go go let the rope fall to the tiled floor for the last time. Her face was shiny with sweat. Tuning her hearing into her surroundings once again she could hear people moving and talking in the house. Training always took her out of the world. There was a singularity to it. Hooking the curtain rope back into place she wandered up the stairs to her room and slumped down on the bed. Exhaustion was welcome as it washed over her. She tried not to think about Texas. To be unable to act, especially for someone like the former bodyguard, was a hard ask.

Go go Yubari shut her eyes and let sleep take the hours of waiting and wondering. Still, there was something so lovely about falling asleep in a house where you could hear people – not fighting or shouting. Not the raucous yakuza parties that had gone on till 4am at the compound. It was a little like having a family again.

#unarmed #annalis e shadowofpanem

[ofcarnvge]

@theshadowsnetwork

//I've said it before and I'll say it again, and again. The fact that we are living in the...

(breathes)

...sciencefiction/metaphysics/monarchy/espionage/medieval/interpersonal/deeply felt and poetically expressed/family/corruption and power consideration/war song/queens and empires/dreams and prophesies at the SAME time as kitchen sink drama...

...era of roleplay, is a testament to what we have built and worked hard to learn as writers and collaborators and we should all be proud.

This is how it's done and I love it.

x

#grateful

[ofcarnvge]

@theshadowsnetwork

//Also need to take a quick sec to go oh my heart because look look

#oh x #i cannot wait to write this