SUE VS SUE
Nov. 26th, 2013 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_sporking_ratAt long last, it is here! And, as promised, sporkings of Kiss the Dead will begin on Friday!
This update is too large for a single LJ update, so I'll be posting it in halves, so look to the post above this one for the next half of this installemtn!
I wanted Thea and the others to all be on Anita's side so she'd have some aid against Lucille, as things are so stacked against her right now, but logically it just seemed like most of their motivations should be to wash their hands of her. And unfortunately that also means most of them, save Bibi and Reba, won't be included in the fic beyond this like I'd wanted. I was hoping for all these different factions siding with Anita for reasons of their own, etc., but oh well, things are enough of a clusterfuck as it is...and besides, there will start being other divisions of factions reeeeal soon in the next few updates of...
SUE VS SUE
Lucille was doing her lipstick in a mirror she'd ripped off from the inside of a locker door and propped up on a teacher's desk so that she almost had a proper vanity set going on. Even when she wasn't going anywhere, she always had to have her signature red lip on. No one else might see, sure, but it wasn't for anyone else, it was for her, and she loved it, so she wore it all the damn time because why not? As she perfectly lined and filled with great care, she thought about how maybe she should call the van Pelts to tell them what she was up to...or rather, lie about what she was up to. After all, she had to maintain idea she wasn't a wild card to her adopted family, because with her background they'd always suspect it, even if the only slight she'd even committed against their high society ideals had been having her son with no father in sight. Going AWOL without a word would definitely put another black mark on her record, though. Still, while she'd never see them as her family, they were useful despite their demand of propriety (or at least pretending it) , hence why she even bothered to stay in their good graces in the first place. At least she was still the better child in the eyes of the old man than his eldest son, and she couldn't blame him for disapproving in that case. Why, if her little Thomas ever turned out like Hiero---
Something slammed against the window, causing her to jump and smear her makeup and curse herself for being so lost in thought that she hadn't paid attention to her enhanced senses warning her of anything approaching. She glared at the offender which was smearing its face across the glass: a zombie. Well, she had a necromancer held prisoner here, it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. Still, between her magical seals and wards and Anita's own utter idiocy, she was pretty sure that there was a third party involved in this somewhere who had helped said necromancer.
"Dammit," she said, wiping the red smear off her mouth daintily while not so daintily grabbing a gun, "This better not be fucking Moon Moon's fault!"
***
The zombies were approaching the schools from all sides, but there were enough in Lucille's crew to defend it from all sides.
Armel tried his luck with controlling the zombie animals, but no dice, it didn't work at all, so instead he simply put out a psychic call to any nearby living animals to come attack the zombies for him, which they did. Dogs came to tear and worry at the walking corpses, cats gleefully chased at the smaller ones, squirrels and rats ripped their undead brethren limb from limb, and deer trampled smaller creatures underfoot and got on their hind legs to kick at large zombies like dogs and humans. Nicole did the same with her ability to call night birds, summoning swarms of owls and other nocturnal avians to claw at the tendons of the zombies legs. Normally she used her birds to claw at the eyes of enemies, but making these being blind would be no use, for they were drawn not by sight but by Anita's power. Taking away their means of mobility was the only way to stop them, since, UNLIKE MOVIE ZOMBIES WHO DO IT WRONG BECAUSE THE WAY OF THIS UNIVERSE IS THE ONLY GOOD AND TRUE AND 'REALISTIC' WAY, a shot to the brain was not the solution to shutting a zombie down permanently; as long as the power of an animator was in them, they would remain active even when chopped to tiny bits.
Or blown to tiny bits, that worked too. It was what Wander was doing to them, while Fidget was going the route of just burning them down to nothing with what seemed to be a homemade magically-enhanced flamethrower that he was having altogether too much fun with, judging by the whole maniacal laugh thing that he currently had going on. Sig, meanwhile, was shooting out their knees, and accidentally hit Ghislaine at one point. It was understandable, since, unlike all those previously mentioned, Ghislaine was not perched on the school roof taking aim from afar but instead in the melee, fighting the zombies up close and hand-to-hand. Since she was in her rotted form, it was understandable that he'd mistaken her for one of them, though she shot him an annoyed look with enough expression even through her decayed face that he realized his mistake. Luckily it had not been silver bullets though, so no harm done. Klaus was also down there as well, and, given the absolutely delicious scent Ghislaine had to him, had no problem telling her apart from the others as he pounced upon them in his tiger form and tore to shreds those who were not simply crushed from the force of his weight.
Hank and Mikey Joe were really useless as humans, since even with super-strength and super-speed they still have zero fighting skills and even less guts, but since they were still more scared of Lucille than of zombies, they shifted to rat form. Neither was strong enough for a hybrid form, but unlike other species of therian, wererats didn't need a hybrid form to have hands in, since real rats (and thus wererats in animal form) had forepaws that were very like human hands, just lacking with thumbs, so they were dextrous enough to handle, respectively, a baseball bat and metal leg torn off from school desk. If the zombie were actually to fight back, the poor rat boys would have been doomed, but these had just one goal in mind: Get to Anita.
Even if it was less a fight and more just beating up on punching bags that happened to be mobile, Cornelius was thrilled at a chance to get to stretch his combat legs a bit at last. Up until now he had been kept out of field entirely by Lucille to preserve his concentration on keeping everyone mentally hooked up and a psychic barrier against Anita, but since clearly someone had busted into that barrier already (like Lucille, Cornelius was sure that Anita was not smart enough to think of even doing something so basic like summoning zombies on her own) maybe he could have a little time off his tether?
Alas, just as he was striding out the door to meet the undead mob, someone jerked him back in by the neck of his shirt. It was Lucille, and she commanded him in no uncertain terms to, "Get back in her and shut that bitch's power off!"
Cornelius grumbled just a bit, but otherwise maintained his grace as he made his way back to where Anita was being kept. As he did, he noticed Sati and Eva sneaking--yes, their movements were definitely of the 'sneaking' sort--towards where Micah and Nathaniel were stored.
Later, when he found out why, he did not speak up about having seen them. He had no love for the two wereleopards, but he was friends with Sati, and that Eva girl seemed nice too. He'd hate to see what Lucille would do to them, and it wasn't as if he owed her his loyalty anyway. He wouldn't even have been in on this whole thing if not for the Traveller, master of his bloodline, making him. And while generally one to be pragmatic in his self-preservation, when it came to being made to do something, well, Cornelius would get every damn little rebellion he could in short of getting himself killed, seeing as how it'd be final this time if he did.
He would sure say a prayer for those girls, though.
***
While Rafael was in the cleared-out supply closet for art class and Anita was in the girls locker-room, Micah and Nathaniel had been stowed in the cafeteria walk-in freezer by Lucille as a joke about that being the proper place for the storage of big pieces of meat like Micah had (or, well, used to have until recently). To her disappointment, the cold no longer worked in there since the power had been shut down with the closing of the school, but being enclosed by four walls of metal was still on the chilly side, especially since the men were naked. The little shorts they had been wearing when they were abducted they now used as toilet paper, as that had not been provided for them, nor had a toilet, which a corner of the freezer now served as. The resultant smell would have been bad enough for a human nose to endure, but Sati and Eva both doubled over and dry-heaved when they opened the doors and found their therian senses under such an assault. Nathaniel's "natural" vanilla scent was no use now...especially since it was not natural at all but just the lotion he religiously used, and had no access to now. He'd decided to let Anita think it was his real bodily-produced odor when he'd found out she believed that, as he knew it made him more appealing to her if it seemed like he literally sweated perfume, and had taken to using vanilla-scented everything since. Micah had always found himself nearly gagging on it, but now he'd have gladly plunged his own head into a tub of the stuff then endure their current stench.
Neither man made a move to escape, nor did they speak. They merely sat with their backs to the wall, looking at the two women. Sat and Eva assumed the poor men had just been so broken-down mentally and weakened physically that they didn't even want to bother trying to make a break for it, but this was exactly what Micah and Nathaniel wanted them to think. They were indeed in no physical condition to do battle, and since the only members of Lucille's crew that they had thus far encountered had been fighters, they mistakenly thought that Sati and Eva must be fighters as well, and thus that their only chance to get by them must be by cleverness and manipulation. Convincing the women to underestimate them was a good start. Or at least, this was Micah's mindset; Nathaniel was himself not so set on escape at all, but manipulation for another purpose.
"Rafael has just been held here, but that's all," said Eva, taking a single step in so that she stood on the doorwaythreshold, "We thought that was all that was being done to you. We...we didn't know about...this."
The men had been mutilated. Lucille had decided to take away everything that made them of value to Anita, and the hair had been only the beginning. Next had come the eyes; she had somehow changed their eye color. Neither Eva nor Sati knew how;there were cornea tattoos, yes, and scelera tattoos, but Lucille had somehow altered the irises themselves. Perhaps she'd used magic, perhaps some with some kind of surgery that only a therian could have recovered from, but both girls knew that whatever was done, it was guaranteed it must have hurt a lot in the process. That was one thing that could always be counted on with Lucille. Both the wereleopards now sported eyes that were a completely normal babyshit brown, a shade that even Anita would be stuck for flowery adjectives for. During the process of whatever it was she'd done to accomplish this, Lucille had been very amused to find out that Nathaniel no more had naturally lavender eyes than he did a natural vanilla scent---it was just a pair of constantly-worn contacts all along! She'd also done some re-sculpting of their pretty faces as well, meaning that she'd broken and reset the bones in them so that they healed into new shapes...perfectly plain, normal, even somewhat homely shapes.
Then, after the hair, face, and eyes, there was only one other thing to ruin for her rival: Their genitals. Both their testicles and penis were gone. And this certainly had not been done my magic but pure, simple, old-fashioned butchery. As done in the traditional creation of eunuchs, a splint and tube had been inserted into their urethra to allow them urination; silver ones, in this case, so that they would not heal over it. The fact that Lucille just happened to have two such silver items on hand for this made the disturbing implication she had planned it from the start and, perhaps, possessed yet more. The men were also forced to drink frequently, so as to urinate equally frequently, which would also prevent the healing of the hole. If they took care to keep it clean and open for the rest of their lives, they would survive just fine, if often in some pain due to the silver in their bodies. That was what Lucille wanted. It would be so much more painful to them and Anita both than if they simply died. She had made Anita look at "the loves of her life" stripped of everything that made them just that, and sooner or later she'd be, if Lucille was lucky, made to admit that for all she claimed to love them, it had only been the packaging that appealed to her and now she didn't want them anymore. And then she'd have to look at herself for what she was for that. Again, if Lucille was lucky; it was doubtful she'd be that self-aware. Still, a girl could hope.
As for the wereleopards, their lives would be spent having lost everything--their positions, the woman who had given them the means to achieve said positions, and the looks that had given them the means to achieve that woman. Lucille had been disappointed that there was ultimately so little to really take from them, but it was better than nothing. And nothing was what they were left with.
Sati and Eva, of course, did not know all this. They just knew of the physical mistreatment the men had suffered by what they could see of them now. And that was more than enough to make them sympathetic. Sati stood guard while Eva fetched a few things to make them more comfortable, like any blankets and towels that could be found, and the pair of them tried to use leftover kitchen sponges to clean the men as best they could, and used buckets to try to wash out the toilet corner.
"Why are you helping us?" Micah finally asked.
"Because this isn't right," said Eva firmly, "Look, we know what you did, but..."
Sati continued, "We don't think it's the place of us, of her, to be doing this. You're beholden to your victims and your karma and no one else."
Sati had been born into supernatural culture, so she knew its harsh ways, even under the most "benevolent" of leaders like Jean-Claude was supposed to be, but she also knew that Lucille had gone too far. Maybe victims of these two and the regime they'd enabled would do worse to them, but at least they had a right to it under the law of their people, rather than an interloper like Lucille deciding she was the judge. Sati and Eva had wanted to free the victims, not punish the victimizers.
"Let us free, and you could stay with us, safe from any retribution from Lucille," offered Micah, "Join the Circus, join Jean-Claude. I could make sure you were well-rewarded. You'd have much higher position than you have here."
The women looked at each other, then shook their heads at the men.
"I don't think Anita is any better a choice," said Eva, "At least Lucille is trying to make things better for the therians in St. Louis, even if she's going about it wrong with this."
"And I gave my loyalty to her," added Sati.
That was when Eva knew she'd have to wait until Sati was gone to let these two loose.
***
Making Anita knock it off with the necromancy had been insultingly easy; all Cornelius had needed to do was walk in to where she was kept and drop his trousers. That made all of Anita's mental energy go from animating the zombies to yammering to herself about how she totally loves cocks and she totally loves dudes but she just doesn't want to suck this cock because she's not in the mood right now, when actually she just wasn't into anybody who wasn't white and the idea that someone might NOT want to suck the cock of A TOTAL STRANGER WHILE BEING HELD CAPTIVE BY THAT STRANGER'S POSSE never really occurred to her, so she thought she had to justify not wanting to suck his cock so as not to admit to herself she was racist...while missing, again, the totally obvious reason why someone wouldn't immediately offer to suck cock in this situation.
Cornelius, meanwhile, just tapped his foot in boredom as he waited for news that the zombies had dropped just like his pants. When a yell from Lucille came in that just this had happened, he sighed, pulled up his pants, and walked out. Meanwhile, Anita still had the dazed look on her face as she continued to yack in her head about all the reasons she didn't want his cock that had nothing to do with his being a black guy or the fact she was being held against her will.
As the zombies all dropped down outside, now normal dead bodies, four human figures remained standing. Sig aimed his guns, but did not yet fire. Likewise, Armel and Nicole had their controlled-creatures at the ready but did not have them attack, as was the case with Klaus and Ghislaine, with Klaus also rubbing the side of his face against Ghislaine absently without quite realizing he was doing it. As for the rats...Mikey Joe and Hank practically collapsed, and tried to back away without it being plain they were wanting to escape, and Wander...well, Wander was gone from the roof, as was Fidget. The others on the roof figured they were on their way downstairs to investigate these newcomers.
Actually, Wander, Fidget, and everyone else who planned to rescue Max and Fell had used this chaos as an opportunity to slip out and make their way to the Circus. After having had a little fun with the zombies first, of course.
***
Getting into the Circus was easy enough; the werehyenas helped them inside, and told them the spots to avoid where there were cameras or fellow guards stationed. They did not personally guide them through the place, however, since that would leave behind both their scents wherever they went, and the noses of the other therians would be able to tell they'd been in the same places at the same times. However, they were not the only ones in the Circus to reach out in aid; Edgar knew where Melanie was kept, and she gladly accepted the offer of shoes in exchange for some impromptu aid. They then went to where the werehyenas had said that Fell was being kept, which was a few levels deeper than the floors where the residents lived. It was essentially a cave at the end of a winding tunnel-hall, the opening of which was blocked by a huge boulder, with multiple guards stationed outside it, along with, doubtlessly, video cameras that would bring more guards down to deal with them even if they dispatched the ones already there. They tried to work out what to do, but it was difficult to speak low enough and not be overheard by the guards. Therian sense were great to have, but a pain in the ass to deal with one's enemies having. They were just lucky they hadn't been scented yet.
Then again, it was probably hard for the poor guards to work out what they were smelling and hearing with Melanie performing illusions on them. True, lamia could only use this power against men, but since Anita was so hostile to anything female being anywhere close to considered competent, women guards were kept to a minimum, really limited to just Claudia and Kelly since Anita tolerated them due to their toadying up to her, and no women were here now.
"The camera will still see everything as it is, of course," reasoned Edgar, "So you be sure not to get in front of it or they'll know you helped.
"Oh, they'll know anyway," purred Melanie with satisfaction as she watched the guards reeling around, reacting in various ways to whatever it was she was making them see, "Between my scent left here, and the illusions cast, it will be quite obvious."
"Then why did you...?"
"I'm coming with you when you make your escape," said Melanie, very casually but also as if there were no question about it, "Now, let's push aside the stone for your Lazarus, our combined strength should be enough."
"She's not dead!", said Tung hotly, then added, "Though she probably will be if you decide to try to blast the stone to pieces instead, Wander. I know that look."
"You too, Fidget," added Mitria. She didn't want her friend to go literally out of the frying pan and into the fire. Fidget and Wander scoffed and sulked a little, but they put their respective equipment down and helped the others push the stone aside. The cave behind it looked like a sort of miniature make-shift laboratory that had been cobbled together very fast and haphazardly. Fell was in the middle, strapped by her wrists and legs to a slab like something out of a Frankenstein film. At first they feared the worst, but a quick check revealed she was only tranquilized, and otherwise no worse for the wear.
"They've been trying to figure out what she is, since she won't say or shift for them," explained Melanie as Tung and Wander carried the unconscious wereplaytypus between them, "I suppose the only reason they didn't just go with good ol' vampire mind-tricks is something to do with your friend Lucy?"
"Somethin' loik that, yeah," said Wander. The actual explanation was...well, none of them really knew. It was something vague that sort of made sense within the rules of their world, and yet didn't fully follow-through satisfactorily but was nonetheless accepted by them all without question so long as it benefited Lucille, though it would still inconsistently apply based on when dramatics and crises were needed.
The video cameras must have alerted the Circus staff to the presence of the invaders, because as the troop began to make their way back up through the tunnel, they could hear guards ahead coming to cut them off. However, they, like the ones who had been guarding Fell, had not expected Melanie to be in cahoots with them, and they too fell victim to her illusions, letting the little gang scurry past them as they tried to untangle what was false and what was real. Some tried to just follow their ears and noses, shutting their eyes to shut out the illusions, springing towards the invaders wherever they could hear or smell them. On one hand, they were still blinded and their opponents were not, but on the other, the guards were trained fighters, and not all the rescuers were. Melanie once again saved the day, shifting rapidly to her true form, an enormous snake from the waist down, and blocked their blows with her lower body, shielding the rebels so they could run, and biting any guard foolish enough to try and go after them. That took care of them...permanently.
Any further attempts to obstruct their path were similarly dealt with, and Melanie seemed to take great relish in it, not so much from sadism but from simply having been cooped up too long, and being frustrated by that. She just needed to vent, really, and her version took the form of destroying lesser lives; it was the same principle as punching a bag to get your spare energy at. Hey, it wasn't her problem if they weren't immortal like her!
By the time they reached the prisoner cell where Max was, the guards simply scattered at the sight of them, having heard everything that happened to their fellows over their ear-pieces. Melanie smiled at them winningly as they went. After they had released the grateful Max, however, someone else stepped out from the direction that the guards had fled. It was Yiyu, and she raised her hands in a gesture of peace.
"Wait," she said, as she saw them all ready to fight and flee, "I want to come with you."
"Really now," said Melanie, her tail tip flicking, "You know, as a mole myself, I can't help but wonder if your motives are pure in that."
"I talked to her," said Max, "She was interested in what I had to say."
"I want to go with you not to gather information for my Master Anita, but because I seek freedom from her and hers," said Yiyu, "There. Did you smell a lie from me when I said that so plainly?"
"You've been alive a long, long time from what I hear, and were a Harlequin servant," said Edgar, who had been introduced to Yiyu while he had still been a guest here, "I think that's time enough to learn to suppress your body's natural reactions to deceit."
"Oi say let's do bring her," said Wander, "Cuz Lucy'll know if she's catalog-buyin' or not, right enough, even if she don't alarm-bell loik she is. She just knows, that one."
"How curious," said Yiyu with a deceptive mild tone for a gravid observation, "No one ever lies to Anita either, and if they do, why, she just does, pheromones or not."
"Very curious," agreed Fidget, but then before he could dwell on it his mind seemed to thrust it out, and he went immediately back to the matter at hand, "Well, what Wander said sounds fair enough, all in favor?"
All in favor.
***
As the four figures approached closer to the school, the vampires and shifters who had been outside fighting could see that they were all young women, two dark and two pale, carrying luggage with them. Before anyone could shout at them to halt and identify themselves, Sati had burst out from the front of the school and run towards them, meeting one of them in a hug. Then she turned to face her comrades, "Everyone, this is Tallulah, my roommate the mermaid."
Despite this endorsement, the quartet were still not allowed in without a thorough physical and psychic inspection by Lucille, though it was not, one noted, at all as bad as what they'd gone through with the airport TSA. Once admitted, they gathered in the classroom with the other rebels, and introduced themselves. The one that Sati had hugged started. She was just slightly on the tall side, well-built and fit without being overtly muscular, just toned, with a tiny waist and nice bust. She had bronze-brown skin, brown eyes, and her hair, which was of varying shades from dark bronze to brown to black, was worn in micro-braids. Merfolk, not being human, did not directly correspond to the appearance of any particular human ethnicity, but her features most resembled those of West African and East Asian peoples.
"Like Sati said, I'm Tallulah Kojima. After she vanished and I found out where and why, I wanted to be a part of it, and so did some of my own people. We're not Cape Cod merfolk, but we fear the Master who controls our kind, and we don't want Anita holding up her deal with his sons so that they can become sirens and control us too like their father and mother. When I sent Sati word by email, your Lucille sent me back that we could join you if we could find you. When we saw a bunch o' zombie critters headed this way, we figured that marked the spot," she had an unusual accent, part Caribbeans, part Hawaii.
"I'm Perdita. I dated Jason awhile, Anita's wolf to call," Perdita was a tall, lean, broad-shouldered woman with thick wavy black hair, dark skin, and sea-green eyes, "We never actually met, but I think he told her we broke up because I was jealous or a prude or something she'd swallow because she already believed it. I actually fled the city once I saw what was going on. I am a Cape Cod girl, from Samuel's bunch, and I think if Anita brings his children to power, she'll take over us too through them. I want to end what she's doing here, and stop her from doing it in Cape Cod."
"And if you're from Samuel and Thea, how can we trust you?" asked Lucille.
"They rescued me," Perdita waved a hand to indicate the other three mermaids, "I was stuck. I didn't want to go back to my Master, but I didn't want to stay in St. Louis...Emily and Victoria helped me slip by both and flee to New York, where we met Tallulah, and when we found out she knew someone with the New York rebels that had invaded St. Louis, we all wanted in."
"We're not Cape Codders either," said Emily. She and Victoria had pale skin, and their features most resembled those of European descent. "We stay away from there, so as not to be caught by its Master and his siren. Same with this city, usually. But when we heard that the St. Louis monster had met them, that they had actually dragged an entourage of our people down there to meet her...well, we had to try to help them somehow."
"We stuck around on the outskirts, in the water, patrolling the rivers so we could meet anyone trying to flee and help them," said Victoria. She was even paler than her lover Emily, with long brown hair and big brown eyes. Anita would have hated them both, as pretty and delicate and feminine as they were, especially since Victoria was gray-eyed blonde and a very proper young lady. She added with downcast eyes and a lament in her voice, "Perdita is the only one we ever found."
"Our intel says she's the only one who stuck around in St.Louis at all, don't worry," said Rowan soothingly, "Trust me, I was there as a spy before our cover got blown and everyone knew we were here as revolutionaries. They trotted out all their more unusual breeds of 'pet' before us, from golden weretigers to the last lamia, and there were no merfolk. You got everyone when you got Perdita."
"So the rest are still enslaved to Samuel then," sighed Victoria.
"Trust me, he and Thea were better than that....that...Blake," growled Perdita, her arms crossed, nails digging slightly into her very skin as she spoke.
"Right," said Lucille, leaning back in her chair a little, knuckles of one hand curled gently under her chin, "And what do you bring to the table? There's always room in the harem for more, if that's what you'd like, but other than that, what can I use you for?"
Naturally they all wanted to be in her harem, especially since she made no demands for them to sacrifice any other lovers. But as far as specialty skills went, it seemed the best they had was that Victoria was a whiz with making steampunk-style clockwork butterflies.
"Clockwork, huh?" Lucille quirked an eyebrow, her mind already whizzing with ways this could be put to a more...aggressive use. "Alright, you're all in. We'll just have to see what we can do with that. And the rest of you, get training with Astrid and Cefyn ASAP, they're your fellow harem girls but they can teach you to be damn more. I've already got Detty to just stand around and look pretty for me. Speaking of those three, you have no idea who they are, I guess...meet everybody so you know who the hell you're working with and they know not to kill you on sight as an intruder, okay?"
With that, Lucille summoned everyone in the school to the classroom she was meeting the mermaids in...and noticed that a handful of her little gang were missing.
***
They had managed to make it out of the Circus, but it wasn't over yet. There were still guards in hot pursuit, hoping to reclaim the prisoners. The rescue team had been forced to split up, and Wander had ended up alone. She scurried through the carnival fairgrounds that made up the above-ground Circus attractions, but she could hear someone behind her every step of the way, and the smell of wolf with them---no one in her group was wolf. Definitely one of the Circus guards, which meant he knew this maze of rides and games way better than she did. Still, she was a rat, and that meant she was good at escape, good at squeezing into small places, good at just plain surviving. She ran out from underneath the platform of the whirling teacups, which were decorated with painted blood overflowing from their brims, made a running leap into one the tilt-a-whirl's skull-shaped cars, and crouched there, listening. When she heard the footsteps of her pursuer pass by the ride, she made a break in the direction opposite to him, towards the carousel, which she doubled around so as to confuse him with her scent, then scampered up one of the poles that ran through the demonic horses, just as if she were a real rat instead of in her human shape, and hid within the workings of its roof, compacting her body as much as possible.
Then the music started, and Wander realized somehow that the carousel had turned on. This relevation came too late, however, since as it started to move, the workings above turned and shifted and she was ejected out of it down with a plop between two wooden animals, and rolled off the platform where she found herself at the feet of a werewolf guard in hybrid form. Grimly, she pulled a grenade from her vest, "Oi don't want ter do this, y'know. Just back off and Oi won't hafta. All we wanted was our mates, see? Sure you'd do the same for Anita an' the boys o' hers we got right now."
At this, the wolfman laughed, a deep throaty sound, and stepped back, not even raising the gun at her that he held, though perhaps that was because his fingers were not suited to pulling triggers in this shape.
"I wouldn't save Anita even if the Ulfric commanded it, let alone risk my hide to do it!"
Wander could have fled then, but this comment made her curious. They'd already gained Damian and Yiyu as converts, could she maybe persuade this man to do the same?
"Oi 'eard she treats everyone loik tom tit 'cept 'er precious treacle-tarts, but we also 'eard that ain't none of you able to realize it either. Seems ter me you're on the up'n'up though right enough."
"It would be easier to bear if I weren't" he said bitterly, then sniffed the air to make sure no other guards were coming this way. He lowered his voice, "The lukoi have wanted to revolt against her for years now, and we damn well should have before she got this powerful. It's impossible for us now."
"Well, fer cryin'aloud, why the hell didn't you?"
"She's tied to our Ulfric. Taking down her would mean taking down him. And that's fine with most of the Pack, but I'm Hati of our pack, and the Skoll and I, we owe him a great debt, and we protect him. We've been keeping him safe from his own pack for some time, but if not for him, both of us and the rest of the wolves, maybe even Richard himself if he could get his mind free of her metaphysical clutches, would join you."
"So....wut you're saying is...get ol' Dicky on our side and the wolves will follow."
The wolfman nodded, "You might even be saving his life. The Skoll and I can't hold them back forever, especially not that Sylvie. But he's bound in a triumvirate, and only Anita can break bonds between Masters and Servants...I fear I may one day have to repay my debt to him by mercy-killing him before he loses himself."
"And if we kill him instead?"
"The Skoll and I would seek your deaths. So would many of the pack on principle even if they'd been planning it themselves. It's one thing for us to kill our own for the betterment of the group, you know, another when an outsider does it for their own gains."
"Aye, Oi can understand that. Will ye come on back with me to our lot, then?"
He shook his head, "Not while my Ulfric is still on this side of the war."
Wander thought for a minute, "Lemme see if Oi've got this all...we have to win Richard over, not just kill him, 'cause if we do that then it'll be you and your mates after our hides, and that means we can't be killin' Anita or the frog just yet since that'd take him too 'long with them."
"That's the way it works."
"So...what're we s'pposed to do then, eh?"
"That's the question I'm sending you back to your side with."
And he loped away.
***
The rescue team all made it back to the abandoned school just fine, and they even managed to escape being treated too badly by Lucille for pulling this off without her permission, since she didn't want to look bad to Yiyu and the mermaids. They were only just allied with her, after all, and might need some time before they just accepted anything she did as right and good. Anita had needed years to build that up here in St. Louis with her own kingdoms, after all, little by little.
A lull fell for the next few days. There were no more zombies, no magic, no rescue missions, no attempts at attack or infiltration from either side. Lucille guessed that the St. Louis heads were waiting for the other shoe to drop, now that it was clear she had not killed Anita, waiting for some sign from her of what she wanted. She used to time to plan, to decide just what she wanted that she could get through doing as the Traveller and Padma said...and what she'd have to take into her own hands, or even disobey them in order to get. She also took the time to start getting her hooks into Yiyu in particular out of the group; as the Therian Servant of Anita, Yiyu could be the key to figuring out how to break such bonds between Servants and Masters like Anita herself could. If Lucille could learn to do that, then she could, according to Wander, secure the St. Louis werewolves on to her side, as well as that Damian if he proved useful enough to deserve it.
Meanwhile, Lucille was not the only one who was making plans....
***
In New York City, Tom Sallow was filling Maureen in on the progress that he was making with Cleo Wilson, Regina of his Pride, to join their cause against Anita despite the risk of backlash it could cause to her people. As he had predicted in their last meeting, the public reveal of a rebellion in St. Louis had caught the attention of every supernatural in the country, including Cleo, and, as he predicted, Cleo was keenly interested in using it as an opportunity to help liberate her fellow werelions, and anyone else she could, from the horrible situation there.
"The problem is, of course, as it always was," said Tom, seated with a cup of tea in the sitting room of Maureen's expensively furnished home, "She won't risk her own Pride to help someone elses'. Her own, our own, come first. However, while she's still not yet sending anyone into the fray, she has made it open that any refugees from St. Louis can come to our city to live with her people, as have the weresnakes and swanmanes of New York. The Pride, the Nest, and the Flock have all agreed to make a sort of underground railroad for those who are trying to escape but have nowhere to go because no one wants to get involved."
"That's more than I'd hoped for," said Maureen, a little surprised. As much as she had wanted the aid of the New York werelions against Anita, she couldn't blame Cleo for not wanting to put them in the path of the panwere-necromancer when they had no reason to do so for their own gain.
Tom nodded, "Alone, it'd be another matter, but the three of these groups together feel they can stand to take the risk. What we'll need, of course, is help with funding for transport, supplies, that sort of thing..."
"And that's where I come in," Maureen smiled. She was not a therian, or a vampire, or even a witch, but she was fabulously wealthy, and that was what was going to make this possible. And she was more than happy to put that wealth to use if it meant she was finally going to get witnesses for her to use against Anita; finally, she was going to answer to HUMAN law.
This update is too large for a single LJ update, so I'll be posting it in halves, so look to the post above this one for the next half of this installemtn!
I wanted Thea and the others to all be on Anita's side so she'd have some aid against Lucille, as things are so stacked against her right now, but logically it just seemed like most of their motivations should be to wash their hands of her. And unfortunately that also means most of them, save Bibi and Reba, won't be included in the fic beyond this like I'd wanted. I was hoping for all these different factions siding with Anita for reasons of their own, etc., but oh well, things are enough of a clusterfuck as it is...and besides, there will start being other divisions of factions reeeeal soon in the next few updates of...
SUE VS SUE
Lucille was doing her lipstick in a mirror she'd ripped off from the inside of a locker door and propped up on a teacher's desk so that she almost had a proper vanity set going on. Even when she wasn't going anywhere, she always had to have her signature red lip on. No one else might see, sure, but it wasn't for anyone else, it was for her, and she loved it, so she wore it all the damn time because why not? As she perfectly lined and filled with great care, she thought about how maybe she should call the van Pelts to tell them what she was up to...or rather, lie about what she was up to. After all, she had to maintain idea she wasn't a wild card to her adopted family, because with her background they'd always suspect it, even if the only slight she'd even committed against their high society ideals had been having her son with no father in sight. Going AWOL without a word would definitely put another black mark on her record, though. Still, while she'd never see them as her family, they were useful despite their demand of propriety (or at least pretending it) , hence why she even bothered to stay in their good graces in the first place. At least she was still the better child in the eyes of the old man than his eldest son, and she couldn't blame him for disapproving in that case. Why, if her little Thomas ever turned out like Hiero---
Something slammed against the window, causing her to jump and smear her makeup and curse herself for being so lost in thought that she hadn't paid attention to her enhanced senses warning her of anything approaching. She glared at the offender which was smearing its face across the glass: a zombie. Well, she had a necromancer held prisoner here, it didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. Still, between her magical seals and wards and Anita's own utter idiocy, she was pretty sure that there was a third party involved in this somewhere who had helped said necromancer.
"Dammit," she said, wiping the red smear off her mouth daintily while not so daintily grabbing a gun, "This better not be fucking Moon Moon's fault!"
***
The zombies were approaching the schools from all sides, but there were enough in Lucille's crew to defend it from all sides.
Armel tried his luck with controlling the zombie animals, but no dice, it didn't work at all, so instead he simply put out a psychic call to any nearby living animals to come attack the zombies for him, which they did. Dogs came to tear and worry at the walking corpses, cats gleefully chased at the smaller ones, squirrels and rats ripped their undead brethren limb from limb, and deer trampled smaller creatures underfoot and got on their hind legs to kick at large zombies like dogs and humans. Nicole did the same with her ability to call night birds, summoning swarms of owls and other nocturnal avians to claw at the tendons of the zombies legs. Normally she used her birds to claw at the eyes of enemies, but making these being blind would be no use, for they were drawn not by sight but by Anita's power. Taking away their means of mobility was the only way to stop them, since, UNLIKE MOVIE ZOMBIES WHO DO IT WRONG BECAUSE THE WAY OF THIS UNIVERSE IS THE ONLY GOOD AND TRUE AND 'REALISTIC' WAY, a shot to the brain was not the solution to shutting a zombie down permanently; as long as the power of an animator was in them, they would remain active even when chopped to tiny bits.
Or blown to tiny bits, that worked too. It was what Wander was doing to them, while Fidget was going the route of just burning them down to nothing with what seemed to be a homemade magically-enhanced flamethrower that he was having altogether too much fun with, judging by the whole maniacal laugh thing that he currently had going on. Sig, meanwhile, was shooting out their knees, and accidentally hit Ghislaine at one point. It was understandable, since, unlike all those previously mentioned, Ghislaine was not perched on the school roof taking aim from afar but instead in the melee, fighting the zombies up close and hand-to-hand. Since she was in her rotted form, it was understandable that he'd mistaken her for one of them, though she shot him an annoyed look with enough expression even through her decayed face that he realized his mistake. Luckily it had not been silver bullets though, so no harm done. Klaus was also down there as well, and, given the absolutely delicious scent Ghislaine had to him, had no problem telling her apart from the others as he pounced upon them in his tiger form and tore to shreds those who were not simply crushed from the force of his weight.
Hank and Mikey Joe were really useless as humans, since even with super-strength and super-speed they still have zero fighting skills and even less guts, but since they were still more scared of Lucille than of zombies, they shifted to rat form. Neither was strong enough for a hybrid form, but unlike other species of therian, wererats didn't need a hybrid form to have hands in, since real rats (and thus wererats in animal form) had forepaws that were very like human hands, just lacking with thumbs, so they were dextrous enough to handle, respectively, a baseball bat and metal leg torn off from school desk. If the zombie were actually to fight back, the poor rat boys would have been doomed, but these had just one goal in mind: Get to Anita.
Even if it was less a fight and more just beating up on punching bags that happened to be mobile, Cornelius was thrilled at a chance to get to stretch his combat legs a bit at last. Up until now he had been kept out of field entirely by Lucille to preserve his concentration on keeping everyone mentally hooked up and a psychic barrier against Anita, but since clearly someone had busted into that barrier already (like Lucille, Cornelius was sure that Anita was not smart enough to think of even doing something so basic like summoning zombies on her own) maybe he could have a little time off his tether?
Alas, just as he was striding out the door to meet the undead mob, someone jerked him back in by the neck of his shirt. It was Lucille, and she commanded him in no uncertain terms to, "Get back in her and shut that bitch's power off!"
Cornelius grumbled just a bit, but otherwise maintained his grace as he made his way back to where Anita was being kept. As he did, he noticed Sati and Eva sneaking--yes, their movements were definitely of the 'sneaking' sort--towards where Micah and Nathaniel were stored.
Later, when he found out why, he did not speak up about having seen them. He had no love for the two wereleopards, but he was friends with Sati, and that Eva girl seemed nice too. He'd hate to see what Lucille would do to them, and it wasn't as if he owed her his loyalty anyway. He wouldn't even have been in on this whole thing if not for the Traveller, master of his bloodline, making him. And while generally one to be pragmatic in his self-preservation, when it came to being made to do something, well, Cornelius would get every damn little rebellion he could in short of getting himself killed, seeing as how it'd be final this time if he did.
He would sure say a prayer for those girls, though.
***
While Rafael was in the cleared-out supply closet for art class and Anita was in the girls locker-room, Micah and Nathaniel had been stowed in the cafeteria walk-in freezer by Lucille as a joke about that being the proper place for the storage of big pieces of meat like Micah had (or, well, used to have until recently). To her disappointment, the cold no longer worked in there since the power had been shut down with the closing of the school, but being enclosed by four walls of metal was still on the chilly side, especially since the men were naked. The little shorts they had been wearing when they were abducted they now used as toilet paper, as that had not been provided for them, nor had a toilet, which a corner of the freezer now served as. The resultant smell would have been bad enough for a human nose to endure, but Sati and Eva both doubled over and dry-heaved when they opened the doors and found their therian senses under such an assault. Nathaniel's "natural" vanilla scent was no use now...especially since it was not natural at all but just the lotion he religiously used, and had no access to now. He'd decided to let Anita think it was his real bodily-produced odor when he'd found out she believed that, as he knew it made him more appealing to her if it seemed like he literally sweated perfume, and had taken to using vanilla-scented everything since. Micah had always found himself nearly gagging on it, but now he'd have gladly plunged his own head into a tub of the stuff then endure their current stench.
Neither man made a move to escape, nor did they speak. They merely sat with their backs to the wall, looking at the two women. Sat and Eva assumed the poor men had just been so broken-down mentally and weakened physically that they didn't even want to bother trying to make a break for it, but this was exactly what Micah and Nathaniel wanted them to think. They were indeed in no physical condition to do battle, and since the only members of Lucille's crew that they had thus far encountered had been fighters, they mistakenly thought that Sati and Eva must be fighters as well, and thus that their only chance to get by them must be by cleverness and manipulation. Convincing the women to underestimate them was a good start. Or at least, this was Micah's mindset; Nathaniel was himself not so set on escape at all, but manipulation for another purpose.
"Rafael has just been held here, but that's all," said Eva, taking a single step in so that she stood on the doorwaythreshold, "We thought that was all that was being done to you. We...we didn't know about...this."
The men had been mutilated. Lucille had decided to take away everything that made them of value to Anita, and the hair had been only the beginning. Next had come the eyes; she had somehow changed their eye color. Neither Eva nor Sati knew how;there were cornea tattoos, yes, and scelera tattoos, but Lucille had somehow altered the irises themselves. Perhaps she'd used magic, perhaps some with some kind of surgery that only a therian could have recovered from, but both girls knew that whatever was done, it was guaranteed it must have hurt a lot in the process. That was one thing that could always be counted on with Lucille. Both the wereleopards now sported eyes that were a completely normal babyshit brown, a shade that even Anita would be stuck for flowery adjectives for. During the process of whatever it was she'd done to accomplish this, Lucille had been very amused to find out that Nathaniel no more had naturally lavender eyes than he did a natural vanilla scent---it was just a pair of constantly-worn contacts all along! She'd also done some re-sculpting of their pretty faces as well, meaning that she'd broken and reset the bones in them so that they healed into new shapes...perfectly plain, normal, even somewhat homely shapes.
Then, after the hair, face, and eyes, there was only one other thing to ruin for her rival: Their genitals. Both their testicles and penis were gone. And this certainly had not been done my magic but pure, simple, old-fashioned butchery. As done in the traditional creation of eunuchs, a splint and tube had been inserted into their urethra to allow them urination; silver ones, in this case, so that they would not heal over it. The fact that Lucille just happened to have two such silver items on hand for this made the disturbing implication she had planned it from the start and, perhaps, possessed yet more. The men were also forced to drink frequently, so as to urinate equally frequently, which would also prevent the healing of the hole. If they took care to keep it clean and open for the rest of their lives, they would survive just fine, if often in some pain due to the silver in their bodies. That was what Lucille wanted. It would be so much more painful to them and Anita both than if they simply died. She had made Anita look at "the loves of her life" stripped of everything that made them just that, and sooner or later she'd be, if Lucille was lucky, made to admit that for all she claimed to love them, it had only been the packaging that appealed to her and now she didn't want them anymore. And then she'd have to look at herself for what she was for that. Again, if Lucille was lucky; it was doubtful she'd be that self-aware. Still, a girl could hope.
As for the wereleopards, their lives would be spent having lost everything--their positions, the woman who had given them the means to achieve said positions, and the looks that had given them the means to achieve that woman. Lucille had been disappointed that there was ultimately so little to really take from them, but it was better than nothing. And nothing was what they were left with.
Sati and Eva, of course, did not know all this. They just knew of the physical mistreatment the men had suffered by what they could see of them now. And that was more than enough to make them sympathetic. Sati stood guard while Eva fetched a few things to make them more comfortable, like any blankets and towels that could be found, and the pair of them tried to use leftover kitchen sponges to clean the men as best they could, and used buckets to try to wash out the toilet corner.
"Why are you helping us?" Micah finally asked.
"Because this isn't right," said Eva firmly, "Look, we know what you did, but..."
Sati continued, "We don't think it's the place of us, of her, to be doing this. You're beholden to your victims and your karma and no one else."
Sati had been born into supernatural culture, so she knew its harsh ways, even under the most "benevolent" of leaders like Jean-Claude was supposed to be, but she also knew that Lucille had gone too far. Maybe victims of these two and the regime they'd enabled would do worse to them, but at least they had a right to it under the law of their people, rather than an interloper like Lucille deciding she was the judge. Sati and Eva had wanted to free the victims, not punish the victimizers.
"Let us free, and you could stay with us, safe from any retribution from Lucille," offered Micah, "Join the Circus, join Jean-Claude. I could make sure you were well-rewarded. You'd have much higher position than you have here."
The women looked at each other, then shook their heads at the men.
"I don't think Anita is any better a choice," said Eva, "At least Lucille is trying to make things better for the therians in St. Louis, even if she's going about it wrong with this."
"And I gave my loyalty to her," added Sati.
That was when Eva knew she'd have to wait until Sati was gone to let these two loose.
***
Making Anita knock it off with the necromancy had been insultingly easy; all Cornelius had needed to do was walk in to where she was kept and drop his trousers. That made all of Anita's mental energy go from animating the zombies to yammering to herself about how she totally loves cocks and she totally loves dudes but she just doesn't want to suck this cock because she's not in the mood right now, when actually she just wasn't into anybody who wasn't white and the idea that someone might NOT want to suck the cock of A TOTAL STRANGER WHILE BEING HELD CAPTIVE BY THAT STRANGER'S POSSE never really occurred to her, so she thought she had to justify not wanting to suck his cock so as not to admit to herself she was racist...while missing, again, the totally obvious reason why someone wouldn't immediately offer to suck cock in this situation.
Cornelius, meanwhile, just tapped his foot in boredom as he waited for news that the zombies had dropped just like his pants. When a yell from Lucille came in that just this had happened, he sighed, pulled up his pants, and walked out. Meanwhile, Anita still had the dazed look on her face as she continued to yack in her head about all the reasons she didn't want his cock that had nothing to do with his being a black guy or the fact she was being held against her will.
As the zombies all dropped down outside, now normal dead bodies, four human figures remained standing. Sig aimed his guns, but did not yet fire. Likewise, Armel and Nicole had their controlled-creatures at the ready but did not have them attack, as was the case with Klaus and Ghislaine, with Klaus also rubbing the side of his face against Ghislaine absently without quite realizing he was doing it. As for the rats...Mikey Joe and Hank practically collapsed, and tried to back away without it being plain they were wanting to escape, and Wander...well, Wander was gone from the roof, as was Fidget. The others on the roof figured they were on their way downstairs to investigate these newcomers.
Actually, Wander, Fidget, and everyone else who planned to rescue Max and Fell had used this chaos as an opportunity to slip out and make their way to the Circus. After having had a little fun with the zombies first, of course.
***
Getting into the Circus was easy enough; the werehyenas helped them inside, and told them the spots to avoid where there were cameras or fellow guards stationed. They did not personally guide them through the place, however, since that would leave behind both their scents wherever they went, and the noses of the other therians would be able to tell they'd been in the same places at the same times. However, they were not the only ones in the Circus to reach out in aid; Edgar knew where Melanie was kept, and she gladly accepted the offer of shoes in exchange for some impromptu aid. They then went to where the werehyenas had said that Fell was being kept, which was a few levels deeper than the floors where the residents lived. It was essentially a cave at the end of a winding tunnel-hall, the opening of which was blocked by a huge boulder, with multiple guards stationed outside it, along with, doubtlessly, video cameras that would bring more guards down to deal with them even if they dispatched the ones already there. They tried to work out what to do, but it was difficult to speak low enough and not be overheard by the guards. Therian sense were great to have, but a pain in the ass to deal with one's enemies having. They were just lucky they hadn't been scented yet.
Then again, it was probably hard for the poor guards to work out what they were smelling and hearing with Melanie performing illusions on them. True, lamia could only use this power against men, but since Anita was so hostile to anything female being anywhere close to considered competent, women guards were kept to a minimum, really limited to just Claudia and Kelly since Anita tolerated them due to their toadying up to her, and no women were here now.
"The camera will still see everything as it is, of course," reasoned Edgar, "So you be sure not to get in front of it or they'll know you helped.
"Oh, they'll know anyway," purred Melanie with satisfaction as she watched the guards reeling around, reacting in various ways to whatever it was she was making them see, "Between my scent left here, and the illusions cast, it will be quite obvious."
"Then why did you...?"
"I'm coming with you when you make your escape," said Melanie, very casually but also as if there were no question about it, "Now, let's push aside the stone for your Lazarus, our combined strength should be enough."
"She's not dead!", said Tung hotly, then added, "Though she probably will be if you decide to try to blast the stone to pieces instead, Wander. I know that look."
"You too, Fidget," added Mitria. She didn't want her friend to go literally out of the frying pan and into the fire. Fidget and Wander scoffed and sulked a little, but they put their respective equipment down and helped the others push the stone aside. The cave behind it looked like a sort of miniature make-shift laboratory that had been cobbled together very fast and haphazardly. Fell was in the middle, strapped by her wrists and legs to a slab like something out of a Frankenstein film. At first they feared the worst, but a quick check revealed she was only tranquilized, and otherwise no worse for the wear.
"They've been trying to figure out what she is, since she won't say or shift for them," explained Melanie as Tung and Wander carried the unconscious wereplaytypus between them, "I suppose the only reason they didn't just go with good ol' vampire mind-tricks is something to do with your friend Lucy?"
"Somethin' loik that, yeah," said Wander. The actual explanation was...well, none of them really knew. It was something vague that sort of made sense within the rules of their world, and yet didn't fully follow-through satisfactorily but was nonetheless accepted by them all without question so long as it benefited Lucille, though it would still inconsistently apply based on when dramatics and crises were needed.
The video cameras must have alerted the Circus staff to the presence of the invaders, because as the troop began to make their way back up through the tunnel, they could hear guards ahead coming to cut them off. However, they, like the ones who had been guarding Fell, had not expected Melanie to be in cahoots with them, and they too fell victim to her illusions, letting the little gang scurry past them as they tried to untangle what was false and what was real. Some tried to just follow their ears and noses, shutting their eyes to shut out the illusions, springing towards the invaders wherever they could hear or smell them. On one hand, they were still blinded and their opponents were not, but on the other, the guards were trained fighters, and not all the rescuers were. Melanie once again saved the day, shifting rapidly to her true form, an enormous snake from the waist down, and blocked their blows with her lower body, shielding the rebels so they could run, and biting any guard foolish enough to try and go after them. That took care of them...permanently.
Any further attempts to obstruct their path were similarly dealt with, and Melanie seemed to take great relish in it, not so much from sadism but from simply having been cooped up too long, and being frustrated by that. She just needed to vent, really, and her version took the form of destroying lesser lives; it was the same principle as punching a bag to get your spare energy at. Hey, it wasn't her problem if they weren't immortal like her!
By the time they reached the prisoner cell where Max was, the guards simply scattered at the sight of them, having heard everything that happened to their fellows over their ear-pieces. Melanie smiled at them winningly as they went. After they had released the grateful Max, however, someone else stepped out from the direction that the guards had fled. It was Yiyu, and she raised her hands in a gesture of peace.
"Wait," she said, as she saw them all ready to fight and flee, "I want to come with you."
"Really now," said Melanie, her tail tip flicking, "You know, as a mole myself, I can't help but wonder if your motives are pure in that."
"I talked to her," said Max, "She was interested in what I had to say."
"I want to go with you not to gather information for my Master Anita, but because I seek freedom from her and hers," said Yiyu, "There. Did you smell a lie from me when I said that so plainly?"
"You've been alive a long, long time from what I hear, and were a Harlequin servant," said Edgar, who had been introduced to Yiyu while he had still been a guest here, "I think that's time enough to learn to suppress your body's natural reactions to deceit."
"Oi say let's do bring her," said Wander, "Cuz Lucy'll know if she's catalog-buyin' or not, right enough, even if she don't alarm-bell loik she is. She just knows, that one."
"How curious," said Yiyu with a deceptive mild tone for a gravid observation, "No one ever lies to Anita either, and if they do, why, she just does, pheromones or not."
"Very curious," agreed Fidget, but then before he could dwell on it his mind seemed to thrust it out, and he went immediately back to the matter at hand, "Well, what Wander said sounds fair enough, all in favor?"
All in favor.
***
As the four figures approached closer to the school, the vampires and shifters who had been outside fighting could see that they were all young women, two dark and two pale, carrying luggage with them. Before anyone could shout at them to halt and identify themselves, Sati had burst out from the front of the school and run towards them, meeting one of them in a hug. Then she turned to face her comrades, "Everyone, this is Tallulah, my roommate the mermaid."
Despite this endorsement, the quartet were still not allowed in without a thorough physical and psychic inspection by Lucille, though it was not, one noted, at all as bad as what they'd gone through with the airport TSA. Once admitted, they gathered in the classroom with the other rebels, and introduced themselves. The one that Sati had hugged started. She was just slightly on the tall side, well-built and fit without being overtly muscular, just toned, with a tiny waist and nice bust. She had bronze-brown skin, brown eyes, and her hair, which was of varying shades from dark bronze to brown to black, was worn in micro-braids. Merfolk, not being human, did not directly correspond to the appearance of any particular human ethnicity, but her features most resembled those of West African and East Asian peoples.
"Like Sati said, I'm Tallulah Kojima. After she vanished and I found out where and why, I wanted to be a part of it, and so did some of my own people. We're not Cape Cod merfolk, but we fear the Master who controls our kind, and we don't want Anita holding up her deal with his sons so that they can become sirens and control us too like their father and mother. When I sent Sati word by email, your Lucille sent me back that we could join you if we could find you. When we saw a bunch o' zombie critters headed this way, we figured that marked the spot," she had an unusual accent, part Caribbeans, part Hawaii.
"I'm Perdita. I dated Jason awhile, Anita's wolf to call," Perdita was a tall, lean, broad-shouldered woman with thick wavy black hair, dark skin, and sea-green eyes, "We never actually met, but I think he told her we broke up because I was jealous or a prude or something she'd swallow because she already believed it. I actually fled the city once I saw what was going on. I am a Cape Cod girl, from Samuel's bunch, and I think if Anita brings his children to power, she'll take over us too through them. I want to end what she's doing here, and stop her from doing it in Cape Cod."
"And if you're from Samuel and Thea, how can we trust you?" asked Lucille.
"They rescued me," Perdita waved a hand to indicate the other three mermaids, "I was stuck. I didn't want to go back to my Master, but I didn't want to stay in St. Louis...Emily and Victoria helped me slip by both and flee to New York, where we met Tallulah, and when we found out she knew someone with the New York rebels that had invaded St. Louis, we all wanted in."
"We're not Cape Codders either," said Emily. She and Victoria had pale skin, and their features most resembled those of European descent. "We stay away from there, so as not to be caught by its Master and his siren. Same with this city, usually. But when we heard that the St. Louis monster had met them, that they had actually dragged an entourage of our people down there to meet her...well, we had to try to help them somehow."
"We stuck around on the outskirts, in the water, patrolling the rivers so we could meet anyone trying to flee and help them," said Victoria. She was even paler than her lover Emily, with long brown hair and big brown eyes. Anita would have hated them both, as pretty and delicate and feminine as they were, especially since Victoria was gray-eyed blonde and a very proper young lady. She added with downcast eyes and a lament in her voice, "Perdita is the only one we ever found."
"Our intel says she's the only one who stuck around in St.Louis at all, don't worry," said Rowan soothingly, "Trust me, I was there as a spy before our cover got blown and everyone knew we were here as revolutionaries. They trotted out all their more unusual breeds of 'pet' before us, from golden weretigers to the last lamia, and there were no merfolk. You got everyone when you got Perdita."
"So the rest are still enslaved to Samuel then," sighed Victoria.
"Trust me, he and Thea were better than that....that...Blake," growled Perdita, her arms crossed, nails digging slightly into her very skin as she spoke.
"Right," said Lucille, leaning back in her chair a little, knuckles of one hand curled gently under her chin, "And what do you bring to the table? There's always room in the harem for more, if that's what you'd like, but other than that, what can I use you for?"
Naturally they all wanted to be in her harem, especially since she made no demands for them to sacrifice any other lovers. But as far as specialty skills went, it seemed the best they had was that Victoria was a whiz with making steampunk-style clockwork butterflies.
"Clockwork, huh?" Lucille quirked an eyebrow, her mind already whizzing with ways this could be put to a more...aggressive use. "Alright, you're all in. We'll just have to see what we can do with that. And the rest of you, get training with Astrid and Cefyn ASAP, they're your fellow harem girls but they can teach you to be damn more. I've already got Detty to just stand around and look pretty for me. Speaking of those three, you have no idea who they are, I guess...meet everybody so you know who the hell you're working with and they know not to kill you on sight as an intruder, okay?"
With that, Lucille summoned everyone in the school to the classroom she was meeting the mermaids in...and noticed that a handful of her little gang were missing.
***
They had managed to make it out of the Circus, but it wasn't over yet. There were still guards in hot pursuit, hoping to reclaim the prisoners. The rescue team had been forced to split up, and Wander had ended up alone. She scurried through the carnival fairgrounds that made up the above-ground Circus attractions, but she could hear someone behind her every step of the way, and the smell of wolf with them---no one in her group was wolf. Definitely one of the Circus guards, which meant he knew this maze of rides and games way better than she did. Still, she was a rat, and that meant she was good at escape, good at squeezing into small places, good at just plain surviving. She ran out from underneath the platform of the whirling teacups, which were decorated with painted blood overflowing from their brims, made a running leap into one the tilt-a-whirl's skull-shaped cars, and crouched there, listening. When she heard the footsteps of her pursuer pass by the ride, she made a break in the direction opposite to him, towards the carousel, which she doubled around so as to confuse him with her scent, then scampered up one of the poles that ran through the demonic horses, just as if she were a real rat instead of in her human shape, and hid within the workings of its roof, compacting her body as much as possible.
Then the music started, and Wander realized somehow that the carousel had turned on. This relevation came too late, however, since as it started to move, the workings above turned and shifted and she was ejected out of it down with a plop between two wooden animals, and rolled off the platform where she found herself at the feet of a werewolf guard in hybrid form. Grimly, she pulled a grenade from her vest, "Oi don't want ter do this, y'know. Just back off and Oi won't hafta. All we wanted was our mates, see? Sure you'd do the same for Anita an' the boys o' hers we got right now."
At this, the wolfman laughed, a deep throaty sound, and stepped back, not even raising the gun at her that he held, though perhaps that was because his fingers were not suited to pulling triggers in this shape.
"I wouldn't save Anita even if the Ulfric commanded it, let alone risk my hide to do it!"
Wander could have fled then, but this comment made her curious. They'd already gained Damian and Yiyu as converts, could she maybe persuade this man to do the same?
"Oi 'eard she treats everyone loik tom tit 'cept 'er precious treacle-tarts, but we also 'eard that ain't none of you able to realize it either. Seems ter me you're on the up'n'up though right enough."
"It would be easier to bear if I weren't" he said bitterly, then sniffed the air to make sure no other guards were coming this way. He lowered his voice, "The lukoi have wanted to revolt against her for years now, and we damn well should have before she got this powerful. It's impossible for us now."
"Well, fer cryin'aloud, why the hell didn't you?"
"She's tied to our Ulfric. Taking down her would mean taking down him. And that's fine with most of the Pack, but I'm Hati of our pack, and the Skoll and I, we owe him a great debt, and we protect him. We've been keeping him safe from his own pack for some time, but if not for him, both of us and the rest of the wolves, maybe even Richard himself if he could get his mind free of her metaphysical clutches, would join you."
"So....wut you're saying is...get ol' Dicky on our side and the wolves will follow."
The wolfman nodded, "You might even be saving his life. The Skoll and I can't hold them back forever, especially not that Sylvie. But he's bound in a triumvirate, and only Anita can break bonds between Masters and Servants...I fear I may one day have to repay my debt to him by mercy-killing him before he loses himself."
"And if we kill him instead?"
"The Skoll and I would seek your deaths. So would many of the pack on principle even if they'd been planning it themselves. It's one thing for us to kill our own for the betterment of the group, you know, another when an outsider does it for their own gains."
"Aye, Oi can understand that. Will ye come on back with me to our lot, then?"
He shook his head, "Not while my Ulfric is still on this side of the war."
Wander thought for a minute, "Lemme see if Oi've got this all...we have to win Richard over, not just kill him, 'cause if we do that then it'll be you and your mates after our hides, and that means we can't be killin' Anita or the frog just yet since that'd take him too 'long with them."
"That's the way it works."
"So...what're we s'pposed to do then, eh?"
"That's the question I'm sending you back to your side with."
And he loped away.
***
The rescue team all made it back to the abandoned school just fine, and they even managed to escape being treated too badly by Lucille for pulling this off without her permission, since she didn't want to look bad to Yiyu and the mermaids. They were only just allied with her, after all, and might need some time before they just accepted anything she did as right and good. Anita had needed years to build that up here in St. Louis with her own kingdoms, after all, little by little.
A lull fell for the next few days. There were no more zombies, no magic, no rescue missions, no attempts at attack or infiltration from either side. Lucille guessed that the St. Louis heads were waiting for the other shoe to drop, now that it was clear she had not killed Anita, waiting for some sign from her of what she wanted. She used to time to plan, to decide just what she wanted that she could get through doing as the Traveller and Padma said...and what she'd have to take into her own hands, or even disobey them in order to get. She also took the time to start getting her hooks into Yiyu in particular out of the group; as the Therian Servant of Anita, Yiyu could be the key to figuring out how to break such bonds between Servants and Masters like Anita herself could. If Lucille could learn to do that, then she could, according to Wander, secure the St. Louis werewolves on to her side, as well as that Damian if he proved useful enough to deserve it.
Meanwhile, Lucille was not the only one who was making plans....
***
In New York City, Tom Sallow was filling Maureen in on the progress that he was making with Cleo Wilson, Regina of his Pride, to join their cause against Anita despite the risk of backlash it could cause to her people. As he had predicted in their last meeting, the public reveal of a rebellion in St. Louis had caught the attention of every supernatural in the country, including Cleo, and, as he predicted, Cleo was keenly interested in using it as an opportunity to help liberate her fellow werelions, and anyone else she could, from the horrible situation there.
"The problem is, of course, as it always was," said Tom, seated with a cup of tea in the sitting room of Maureen's expensively furnished home, "She won't risk her own Pride to help someone elses'. Her own, our own, come first. However, while she's still not yet sending anyone into the fray, she has made it open that any refugees from St. Louis can come to our city to live with her people, as have the weresnakes and swanmanes of New York. The Pride, the Nest, and the Flock have all agreed to make a sort of underground railroad for those who are trying to escape but have nowhere to go because no one wants to get involved."
"That's more than I'd hoped for," said Maureen, a little surprised. As much as she had wanted the aid of the New York werelions against Anita, she couldn't blame Cleo for not wanting to put them in the path of the panwere-necromancer when they had no reason to do so for their own gain.
Tom nodded, "Alone, it'd be another matter, but the three of these groups together feel they can stand to take the risk. What we'll need, of course, is help with funding for transport, supplies, that sort of thing..."
"And that's where I come in," Maureen smiled. She was not a therian, or a vampire, or even a witch, but she was fabulously wealthy, and that was what was going to make this possible. And she was more than happy to put that wealth to use if it meant she was finally going to get witnesses for her to use against Anita; finally, she was going to answer to HUMAN law.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-12-12 09:24 pm (UTC)That said...
LUCY! How dare you think that Maureen would ever allow your son to start turning out like His Walrusness. He's not nearly as important as her Simon and Dolly, but she's not about to let him fall into the pit of tacky dispair.
MOON MOON
Poor Armel. It's okay. You're trying your hardest! And deeeeeer! MAUREEN'S ANTLERED BABIES.
Mwahahahahahaaa! MOVIE ZOMBIES!
FIDGET GOT HIS HAPPY PYRO HANDS ON A FLAMETHROWER. This is both awesome and terrifying. And he would be laughing. So so sooooo much. ...He'd also be rather embarrassed by his other reactions, if he wasn't so busy toasting zombies like rotting marshmallows.
And Sig! YOU GO SIG. Odile is going to be so sad she missed out on this. Well. Whatever 'sad' translates to in Odile-land.
HANK! YOU GO HANK! RATTIES ARE BEST! Remember Hank, Aggie and Max are counting on you! ...Not really, but just keep pretending. ...I'm surprised Lucille didn't turn him into Shouty-rat. ...Maybe she doesn't know about Shouty-rat.
Aww, poor Cornelius.
And I know you didn't have room, but I can't help but think of what the others are up to. Rowan being incredibly practical and making sure no one runs out of bullets. Odette deciding that the zombies are icky and unless Sig or Lucy orders her to fight them, she's just going to stay on the roof and cheer everyone on. Aggie introducing the zombies to the bone snapping power of a shifter wielded quarterstaff...
I'm sorry Micah and Nathaniel. But as I was reading all of that, I had the mental image of Lucille doing it slowly, and instructing the Tiny Evil Kiss as she did it. "Now, you have to be careful while doing this. There are some major arteries and you don't want them dying on you..."
And how NORMAL they are! Mwahahahah.
...You go Cornelius. That is the best way to knock out a villain ever. What would her opinion of Hank be I wonder? He's not a PoC, but he sure as hell isn't attractive. Or well endowed for that matter.
'No Fidget, you have to put down the flamethrower.' 'But it's my friend!' 'Yes, we know. But you have to leave your friend behind.' '...I don't want to.' 'Put the flamethrower down Fidget.'
Shoes for help. Melanie continues to be epic. La Mia, Odette, and Melanie can all go shoe shopping together.
Fidget muttering and grumbling while he tucks his explosives away again. Poor darling.
Whenever I think of the wereplatypus, I can't help but think of the leader of the Tiny Evil Kiss. Who calls platypi.
Wheee! Melanie being a badass!
Oh, Yiyu sweetie. Come to Detty. She'll make it allllll better.
DARLING MERMAIDS! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU!
And of course Anita would hate them. Victoria's short and dainty and delicate... And likes girls. And Emily is a bit taller, a bit tougher, a lot more practical... and likes girls.
Yay, Rowan being practical!
I can't help but imagine the face Victoria made at joining a harem. And her little clockwork butterflies! And Emily has a very special skill set! She keeps Victoria from having melt downs.
Detty really is very good at standing around and looking pretty.
Yay Tom and Maureen! Best competitive BFFs.
I wonder what Anita would do if she met Jane and Kurt?
(no subject)
From: