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June 6, 2002 |
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World's End Bar...
Yosannah trumps into the bar as Scordis clicks the safety off on his pistol. He eyes Lexi as she approaches the bar. Yosannah smooths over her jacket as she looks about the room.
Anyon appears suddenly, tucks away his trump and heads to the bar.
Scordis triggers a long burst. The gun roars, exploding the mirror behond the bar into shivering fragments that tinkle onto the floor. Then the gun jams.
Anyon orders a Glass of chardonnay and a bagel with cream cheese. The bartender pushes it across the bar and it slides to a stop in front of him.
Yosannah flinches as the sound of gun fire. She ducks and covers her head with her hands, "What the hell...??"
Ophelia scrunches down in her seat until she can barely see over the edge of the table, eyes wide.
Anyon ducks under the bar, as shards of glass scatter over the top of the bar, luckily he managed to grab his glass of wine and bagel. As the dust settles, he's munching his food and sipping from his wine, sitting cross-legged on the floor.
Lexi sits very still in her seat, watching the place where the mirror was with an abstracted look on her face.
Scordis says, "Aha!" He's apparently oblivious to the disturbance he caused. Quick hands clear the jam, then begin to disassemble the gun onto the bartop.
Yosannah reluctantly drops her hands from their defensive position over her head and rises. She regards Scordis casually for a moment.
Scordis finishes disassembling the gun. He considers the pieces.
Yosannah finally steps toward the bar after, what seems like, a long moment of deliberation.
Lexi pops open her purse and starts digging around in it.
Scordis extracts file, cloth, oil, and more esoteric tools from various pockets, setting to work on the pieces as he chats at the bar.
Lexi pulls out a small burlap bag, a small square of purple silk, and a small black rock, setting each on the bartop in turn.
Yosannah climbs up onto a barstool near Scordis.
Scordis begins to reassemble the bits and pieces in front of him back into a gun.
Yosannah pushes away her coffee cup and fidgets around in her jacket pocket.
Scordis tells Yosannah offhandedly, "She's out of Hell's Kitchen now."
Yosannah stops abruptly, "I'm sorry?"
Scordis says "She's out of Hell's Kitchen. Sort of. Except now she's someone else, and he's nuttier than a squirrel with two peanuts and one mouth."
Yosannah strugles for a moment, and then, "Kit?"
Calamity squints, looking towards Scordis.
Scordis says "It was. Now it's someone else. The fourth not mentioned here was there to see it." He squints out the door. "If you'll excuse me, I have somethig to attend to now."
Yosannah says "I don't think you realize that I'm not..." Her voicetrails off as he makes ready to leave, "...Uh, okay."
Scordis climbs to his feet. He heads out the door.
Yosannah regards the empty stool where Scordis sat. Calamity switches her gaze to Yosannah, "Not ..?"
Yosannah blinks once or twice, "Hu?"
Lexi says to no one in particular, "Yeah, I'm lost," and turns her attention to the bartender.
Lexi orders a cup of coffee. The bartender pushes it across the bar and it slides to a stop in front of her.
Yosannah nods at Lexi as she quickly slides her arms back into her jacket, "Yeah, me too..."
Calamity prompts, "You're not something." eyeing the healing wound.
Yosannah shakes her head and offers a slight smile, "I think he uh, may have had me confused for someone else, that's all." She fishes around in her jacket pocket again.
Calamity squints again, "Et tu? That's interesting ..."
Yosannah raises her hand to the wound at her next as Calamity's eyes fall upon it. Pulling a card out of her jacket pocket, she slides off the stool.
Calamity watches Yosannah as she leaves, her expression sheer pointy curiosity.
Yosannah focuses on the card before her...
Gideon Club Hallway...
Calamity fades into view, a shadowy figure of silver glimmers and sparkles before she snaps into full presence.
Yosannah yells up the stairwell, "....Stone? Hey, are you here?!" Her voice quivers lightly. Yosannah obviosly is not aware that Calamity has appeared in the hallway.
Calamity tucks her card back into her waistcoat, saying in a mild drawl, "Problems?"
Yosannah turns abruptly, her hand reaching under her jacket and at her back.
Calamity taps her fingers against the butt of the pistol at her stomach, "Easy up there, you know he don't like no blood on his carpets. I ain't here to hurt you."
Yosannah leaves her hand resting at her back, "...Jesus, you followed me?"
Calamity grins impishly, "I serve War and Death. You get to be a right resourceful tyke when you do that line of work. You gonna settle down?"
Yosannah reaches her free hand out to the banister in effort to steady herself, "You what? What are you talking about?"
Calamity asks a question of her own. "What ain't you?"
Yosannah promptly ignores the question, "I'm not in the habit of answering unintelligent questions for strangers. You don't belong here, I'll ask you to leave."
Calamity smirks, "Stone's place. Day he asks me to leave, I will."
"This isn't just Stone's place, and seeing as I don't know you, I think you had better go."
Calamity shrugs, "Far as I'm concerned, it's his. And you do know me, you jus' don't know you know me. You seem awful confused today."
"What the hell are you talking about."
Calamity says "See what I mean?"
Yosannah reaches the hand at her back up to her head and winces, "I don't have time for this..."
Calamity nods slighly, "Well if you all tell me a couple of things, I'll go away of my own accord, nice as pie and twice as satisfied."
Yosannah shakes her head, "Leave me alone." She turns her back to you and takes a step up the stairwell.
The sound of spurs set in motion jingles from behind - not too close, but following. "What happened to you to get you in such a spin?"
Yosannah begins to climb up the stairs, "None of your business. I'm not in a 'spin'."
Calamity says "Yer freakin' about /something/."
Yosannah shakes her head and continues to climb the stairs, "And what do you care."
Calamity comments chirpily, "I'm tenatious as all hell." as she follows up, a fair few feet out of casual sloshing distance. "I'm curious about Pestilence. Of course. Might as well be. In all sorts of shit already. In for a penny, in for a pound - that's what they say."
Yosannah pauses in her climb, "So, what are you asking me for?"
Calamity tilts her head, "You tell me. You seem to know what I'm talkin' about all of a sudden, I notice."
Yosannah composes herself, "I don't. That's my point. Don't you have something better to do?"
Calamity says blithely, "Nope."
"Listen, I have nothing to talk to you about. So, you can leave, or we can stand here in silence."
Calamity grins again, "Silence seems unlikely with me about. I could talk the legs off a donkey. Why don't you jus' co-operate fractionally, or even think of a good lie?"
"Why don't you accept the fact that I don't know you and I'm not talking to you and i'm not co-operating... so go away."
Calamity says "Did I mention how tenatious I is? I'm sure I did."
Yosannah reaches at her back again and retrieves a silver glock. She points it in Calamity's direction. Yosannah doesn't flinch, "Is this obvious enough for you? Leave me alone."
Calamity thumbs back the hammer on her six-gun. "You ain't too bright. Where's Pestilence?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
Calamity squints, unwavering. "See, that don't seem possible."
"Shoot me or leave, those are your only two choices."
Calamity says "Put your gun away and I'll consider the latter - but it ain't over 'till it's over, whether I leave or not. If you really don't know what's goin' on, sending me off without a question and answer session is a bit blonde."
"No."
Calamity smirks, "No /what?/"
"No, i'm not putting my weapon down."
Calamity shrugs, lightly, "You drew first, you put away first. Else we jus' stand here till Stone comes along an' calls us both idiots. Or you run outta patience and shoot me, only then realising I ain't lying when I tell you - that thing ain't going to do as much to me as you think it is. I get shot for a living, sugar."
Yosannah's breath comes quickly. After a moment she lowers her aim.
Calamity lowers her gun at almost precisely the same time, starting to back down the stairs with the barrel pointed downwards. She grins and winks, "Be seeing you."
Yosannah says nothing. She watches the woman head back down into the hallway, taking a step or two up the stairs as she does.
Calamity backs all the way to the study door, seeming to know the layout well enough to reverse flawlessly, never taking her gaze from you. She disappears from view as she steps through the doorway.
Yosannah lets a deep breath escape her lungs. She sits down on the stairs, arms crossed over her knees. Dropping her head into her arms she begins to cry.