paris ♔ so you'll keep the world at bay | keep your secrets and your scars.

[silvermaid]

♬ The Storm - Boy & Bear

WHO || Anastacia, Christos, Faye, Aedan, Felicity, Taenya Farstorm
WHAT || The Knights travel to Paris, get some sight seeing in, and meet with the councilwoman.
WHERE || Paris, France
WHEN || August 26th IGNORE WHAT WYNN SAID ABOUT A COUPLE OF WEEKS, I DO WHAT I WANT
HOW || Actionspam

[ this post covers all events from the flight to paris through the initial meeting to get things rolling on the mission. there will be three relevant threads below, please wait for them to be posted to comment ♥ ]

Comments

to christos!

[uncurse]

[ the ride home was awkwardly tense and quiet. entirely emma's fault, which really helps the mood she's been put in by all of this. she's direct to the point as they brush into the hotel room. ]

Tell me that cup got us somewhere.

[bittersweeter]

[Lila just flings herself on the couch. Fuck this noise.] Somewhere with booze, preferably.

[everyredcent]

Too many muddled prints, to no one's surprise. [ he gestures to a tiny petri dish looking thing that has a few drops in it ] But I found traces of the poison. An expensive brand, but nothing Shadow in origin. It belongs to a rare spider, a native of Madagascar, known for being relatively tasteless, and remarkably fast-acting. The catch being that the venom loses much of its potency within forty eight hours of being extracted from the spider's glands.

[uncurse]

Which is probably why Lila's still alive. [ something emma is grateful for, whether lila believes it or not. and as emma shoots lila a look, she's gonna have to come up on the side of lila probably doesn't believe that right now. she looks back at christos. ] Doesn't really narrow our list down further. Any way we can figure out if the mayor's gotten his hands on the stuff recently?

[bittersweeter]

[Lila can't help giggling, ignoring Emma completely, because putting it together makes it seem like a silly noir film. If they have to find the Burmese Falcon, she's gonna cry.] Wait can we just take a moment to recognize that someone milked a spider in Madagascar, sent the venom par avion to Madame Maxine in Paris, who somehow got it into the Councilwoman's teapot. All within 48 hours... Oh my god, that is the most ridiculous plan, why didn't she just use thallium? Or like arsenic, that shit is at least readily available. [A beat.] To people like me. [Knowledge: ....streetwise? 19] If it came through customs, it'll have to be on the shipping manifesto.

[everyredcent]

[ christos is unimpressed with her bravado, as evidenced by his cutting retort: ] Clearly, a murderer who's researched the specific out of town company through which a woman special-orders her tea before finding a way to poison it would also be well aware of the fact that she has a cleric on staff. Arsenic has easily recognizable symptoms, particularly given that it's so prevalent in dime store novels as a murder weapon. It takes a few hours to kill, and that's plenty of time for her to take her condition to her resident healer. And thallium poisoning is effective as a time-delay strategy for murder, but again, they've already made an open attempt on her life, and she's running paranoid as is. They needed something that would act quickly. Not to mention thallium's effects have been widely published for years now. 500 mg of Prussian Blue and their plan would be upended.

No, they were banking on the unusual in hopes of a test for this particular poison not even being run. Most pathologists would have no experience with it. Foolish logic, on their part, all things considered, but their motives in selecting it are at least remarkably obvious.

But I think you're mistaken about the manifesto. It is ridiculous to imagine them overnight express-ing the venom, but that's hardly the only explanation. The poison was potent enough to still work within minutes, meaning it was extracted before the 48 hour window.

[uncurse]

So, they didn't ship the poison. They shipped the spider.

[ that's probably the more sensible option anyway, but now is not the time to tack an 'obviously' onto that since she's already in the dog house with lila. any minute now the kid will be talking about how pizza is cheesy and delicious and doesn't act like a bitch. ]

[bittersweeter]

[Considering the men in her life are prone to looking like they would like nothing more than to not deal with Lila, she isn't much bothered by being dressed down by Christos. Especially because it made sense.

Which means she has to acknowledge Emma. Ew.] So who around town knows how to milk a spider for venom? The zoo?

[everyredcent]

I can't imagine the mayor taking someone into his confidence who he wasn't already close to, just for access to the creature. And given its specificity, it seems more likely that it was what his confidants had ready access to already.

I'd be curious to see if any of his sympathetic colleagues had traveled to Madagascar within the past year. This particular spider's lifespan isn't much longer than that, although it's possible they had a mated pair.

[uncurse]

Shouldn't be too hard to get an idea of who that is. I'll try to get my hands on his phone records ... Lila, you want to see who you can chat up around the mayor's office? Sounds like your alley.

[bittersweeter]

Yeah. [She kicks her shoes off and languidly pushes herself off the couch heading toward her room. This is going to involve a costume change, her innocent Alice in Wonderland blue dress isn't going to cut it.] Let me change and we can go.

[everyredcent]

While you do that, I'm going down to the docks, before those girls wind up getting themselves killed.

[uncurse]

Killed doing what?

[ she looks around, suddenly marking the absence. ]

Why are they at the docks?

[bittersweeter]

The docks? [Lila's voice is muffled for a second as she tugs her dress over her head and pokes her head back out of her room.]

They went together, right? [Because that's slightly less worrying than if either of them went alone, Felicity clearly knows her sneaky shit.]

[everyredcent]

They insisted. I overheard [ re: spied on ] the mayor discussing plans he has for Shadowkind in this city, supplies for which were arriving tonight at a warehouse there.

[uncurse]

And you only felt the need to update us on that now?

[bittersweeter]

[Snort as she goes back to dressing. Emma has the worry covered.] They insisted. Where were you when I was insisting?

[everyredcent]

You asked about the cup. [ he manages to make that sound like an accusation, like wow, should've started by asking HOW WAS YOUR DAY CHRISTOS, WHAT EXCITING INFO DID YOU FIND OUT IN YOUR TRAVELS. but he's already drawing on his cloak as he says it and heading towards the door, dismissively. ]

[uncurse]

[ arguing and pointing out that safety of teammates being in jeopardy should definitely come before any other updates seems useless at this point, and like it'll only detain him longer from providing help. she starts pulling a laptop out of a bag surprise she brought one. or someone did and she plans to use it to get those phone records shhh. ]

Text me the address, I'll catch up once I'm done here.

[bittersweeter]

[With a charcoal grey pencil skirt and a pretty white blouse with a matching grey scarf covering her scar, Lila comes back out wearing a pair of glasses and sweeping her blonde curls back into a french twist. (disguise 27) She looks the picture of young college intern. Barefoot... college intern.]

So am I solo? [In the mayor's office... She sounds a little hopeful.]

[everyredcent]

Perhaps you're unfamiliar with the concept of a stealth mission, but it's generally compromised by the addition of more party members, particularly those who are novices to the craft.

[ he yanks open the door ] Someone should be monitoring Lila. Work it out. [ annnd he slams it behind him ]

[uncurse]

[ awkward.

emma lowers the laptop to the coffee table, looking up almost sheepishly as she realizes oh she's going to have to actually communicate with her daughter after fucking everything up. oops. being a parent is hard. ]

... I've been working on sending messages through magic, but I don't think it can reach from here to the mayor's office. If I bring my laptop with you and hang around outside or in the lobby, is that gonna keep you from doing ... whatever it is you plan to do to get info from them? [ she shakes her head, looking at the table in front of her and trying to think of what else they have at their disposal. ] Otherwise you can ... call me and leave it on speaker. I'll mute my end, you can keep the phone in your purse, I'll come running if things go sideways.

[bittersweeter]

[ hold please, she'll get to that in a second. ] Did that surly bitch just call me a novice? Asshole. [ okay, not the point, zacharov, get on point. ] No magic, I don't want stuff in my head. I can... pull a con with you watching, it's fine. [ she tucks the last bobby pin in place and adjusts her scarf. ] You'd hire me, wouldn't you?

[uncurse]

[ emma smirks a little at lila's complaint, more to herself than anything, but when lila asks, seeking approval of some kind, emma looks up and the smile turns more genuine. she nods. ]

In a heartbeat.

[ she packs up the computer into a shoulder bag and pulls it up. ]

Let's go. Get your phone turned on now, [ she says it as she starts ringing up lila's number. ] I'll be close by, but I'll want to hear better.

[bittersweeter]

[ she'd better hire, lila, tbh. emma gets to hear lila's ringtone (which is not shine bright like a diamond) so for a second before she grabs the phone, the cheerful strains of justin timberlake blast out of her purse while she hops over as she's tugging her heels back on. damn right he's bringing sexy back, it's his superpower. ] Just, not in my head, okay? [ she says it like she's double checking, but she really is against magic in her head. she does some more adjusting, mostly of the scarf, and she seems to be ready, slinging her purse over her shoulder, taking a moment to be pleased that her expensive taste in clothes is now legitimately useful. ]