08-29-2016, 02:20 PM
[[Timeline strikes, oh noes! >_< This thread is intended as being set a different date to Pawns of the Game (which was supposed to be set before Ascendancy made the arch in the Red Square). This thread is afterwards, possibly even concurrently with Jaxen breaking into Atharim HQ. So we'll just have to pretend Manix came back to stalk his redhead lol]]
![[Image: carmen.jpg]](http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/nythadri/carmen.jpg)
Carmen let out a breath after Raffe left. He took the warning with his usual nonchalance, but she'd hardly been about to divulge the entirety of the problem: which was that Ori was one of them, the Ascendants, and fuck if Carmen wasn't concerned that she'd seen challenge in Ascendancy's display. She didn't like the company Oriena had kept the other night; the man who'd given her the bruises, and another who'd sat with them. Carmen wasn't a waitress, but she'd made a point of serving the table that night. Ori had ignored the glares. But the Irish man had stared and slid his number on the tray when he paid. Not that she'd called; she wasn't a whore, and he hadn't even shared his name, let alone asked hers. Just left an outrageous tip.
Her jaw tightened, glancing up the stairs just as Raffe had. First Claire and her witchcraft shit, then the mutt living upstairs, and half a dozen others besides. If there were really a cult group murdering those with powers, Oriena was setting up a fucking beacon for them to follow. But there were innocents here too. People like Raffe who were none the wiser, as well as others. Carmen fucking included.
She calmed her expression. Ran her hands over her hips, smoothing the fabric of her dress, and returned to the light and noise of the club. Raffe quirked a smile from his station at the bar, but she only frowned at him. It was nice that he cared; he was a sweet boy, a little roguish, and the girls adored him, but Kallisti was her problem, her responsibility. And her burden. Her gaze moved away, roaming the evening's clientele, and fell squarely on the guy who'd slipped his number.
Kallisti wasn't a strip-club and it didn't sell sex, but it dealt in the flesh all the same. The tease of it, at least. Men tried it on all the time; Carmen was inured to it. She offered the flicker of a smile, a cool one granted, but it was her job after all. Then got back to work.
Edited by Oriena, Aug 29 2016, 02:20 PM.
Carmen let out a breath after Raffe left. He took the warning with his usual nonchalance, but she'd hardly been about to divulge the entirety of the problem: which was that Ori was one of them, the Ascendants, and fuck if Carmen wasn't concerned that she'd seen challenge in Ascendancy's display. She didn't like the company Oriena had kept the other night; the man who'd given her the bruises, and another who'd sat with them. Carmen wasn't a waitress, but she'd made a point of serving the table that night. Ori had ignored the glares. But the Irish man had stared and slid his number on the tray when he paid. Not that she'd called; she wasn't a whore, and he hadn't even shared his name, let alone asked hers. Just left an outrageous tip.
Her jaw tightened, glancing up the stairs just as Raffe had. First Claire and her witchcraft shit, then the mutt living upstairs, and half a dozen others besides. If there were really a cult group murdering those with powers, Oriena was setting up a fucking beacon for them to follow. But there were innocents here too. People like Raffe who were none the wiser, as well as others. Carmen fucking included.
She calmed her expression. Ran her hands over her hips, smoothing the fabric of her dress, and returned to the light and noise of the club. Raffe quirked a smile from his station at the bar, but she only frowned at him. It was nice that he cared; he was a sweet boy, a little roguish, and the girls adored him, but Kallisti was her problem, her responsibility. And her burden. Her gaze moved away, roaming the evening's clientele, and fell squarely on the guy who'd slipped his number.
Kallisti wasn't a strip-club and it didn't sell sex, but it dealt in the flesh all the same. The tease of it, at least. Men tried it on all the time; Carmen was inured to it. She offered the flicker of a smile, a cool one granted, but it was her job after all. Then got back to work.
Edited by Oriena, Aug 29 2016, 02:20 PM.
![[Image: orianderis.jpg]](http://thefirstage.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/orianderis.jpg)