skiamakhia | perhaps a slight au

perhaps a slight au

[But perhaps not. As ways to exit the scene gracefully, Myoh had thought she'd done pretty well. It was smooth, and done in the wee hours of the night--several hundred corporate accounts, drained in amounts that would be blamed on the bank's errors, funneled all to her. A couple full ebony credsticks left on the kitchen table, and the lease paid for the next year, a simple note of thanks, and she was gone. Out of the shadows, and out of the slums.

It's been nearly a year. Sure, going legit has been boring, but she invested wisely and has enough money to never have to work for anyone, ever again, so the days were spent building more and more terrifying machines. She rarely ever sold the designs, but the ones she did sent the markets into a tizzy. The place she lived wasn't secret, but the drones that guarded it would destroy just about any intruder short of an army or a dragon.

Or one man she'd left programming in not to attack. The place itself isn't super ostentatious in design, but it's definitely spacious--turns out a girl who's lived in glorified closets most of her life goes for a place with more room than she can figure out how to use.

If she's expecting anyone to have come looking for her, it certainly doesn't show.]

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[The thing that probably was frightening to her wasn't that Betrayal vanished. Most runners worth their weight can escape. It's the fact that in the coming weeks from their team breaking up, her teammates have forgotten him entirely. They might recall the jobs, their work together, even homecooked meals, but Betrayal himself is completely missing from their recollection and seem, if anything, irritated the more she brings it up.

Also Landfall walked out into maglev traffic at some point after their jobs. That's probably related.

Like any good runner who went to ground, the contact line he left was gone - turned out he was only paying per month for a cheap connection. He didn't have much else online, being a mage and all.

So maybe, a year later, it's a surprise that there's a familiar yet always kind of disturbing presence stalking her hallways. He did always seem to prefer the dark.]

[He'll know when she notices, because there's suddenly feeling of a hundred thousand eyes opening. Looking for him. Searching.

She's wired the whole house to be her eyes, of course she has...but she takes a breath, after a moment or two, and sets down the wrench she had been holding.]

...I was beginning to think you weren't going to turn up.

[He smiles up at them - maybe it is the ultra detailed vision his magic-enhanced sight affords him, but he was always good at picking out cameras.]

I had to spend some time considering what to do about you...

I don't know whether to be flattered or worried, it took this long.

[Well. She knows damn well if he wants to kill her, he can. But she's also not going to bother hiding the raptor-like drones coming out of the woodwork.

He'd know anyway. It's not like she wants to die. So let's just keep talking.]

I thought it was you, when that troll went and offed himself.

Oh, that. Enough smug comments about my taste and even I'm not above lashing out. Though it does amaze me. For a bunch of professionals, none of you ever once screened for magic like, oh, well, implanted post-hypnotic suggestions? I'm amazed everything was left in tact on those idiots.

[He shrugs widely.]

It made my getting detatched easier, though.

...Implanted them on all of us, I'm guessing? Which means either you never used it on me, or never did it in the first place.

[She huffs out a breath, and turns to face him properly. it's late, she's in basically a long t-shirt and no pants, deal with it.]

I figured I left you enough cash to do whatever the hell you wanted.

The former, actually. Still all sorts of active programs, but I have to get close enough to say them, or use a link. Not that I have any reason to right now. The money you left was more than sufficient and I just thought I would come and visit.

Then why are we talking in the damn hallway instead of, say, the kitchen where I keep all the booze?

[Seriously, dude, it's late and she would like to not die sober, or whatever happens here.]

I mean, I appreciate the effort you've gone through for the whole spooky effect, and it's more than a little creepy, I'm not gonna lie, but c'mon, Lidan. We can drink before you do whatever it is you came here for, right?

Fine, fine.

[He'll just follow her into the kitchen, then. It's not like he's particularly in a rush, and she seems to have forgotten he was, in fact, just naturally kind of fucking terrifying as hell.]

[Look, fucking a guy on regular does a lot to curb the terrifying. And she does lead him into what is a fucking fantastic kitchen, for all it's clear she doesn't use it that often because, well. Attempts to teach her to cook usually ended in disaster.

She does have really good booze, though, and she's sliding him the bottle of bourbon.]

...I guess I don't really know what to expect. I figured if anyone came looking for me, they'd be...I dunno, angry. I did pretty much vanish into thin air. None of the others even know where I live.

[He'll take it and look at it, then at her over it. Does he not trust her? Or is he just always scary like this?]

I don't have much to be angry about, you paid out fairly well and the jobs were getting to dry up rather quickly. It's why I took it as a sign to remove myself from their memories, but youuu... you were harder to track down. Took dangling a lot of people off of bridges to get an address.

Awww, you dangled people off bridges looking for me? That's sweet.

[The sad thing is, she's probably serious.

The bottle itself hasn't had its' seal broken, so it'd be safe if he really doesn't trust her.]

And now what? You plannin' on making me forget, too? Or is there something else in mind?

Well, I thought about it. You wouldn't be the first girl I've been with whose forgotten me at my own behest. You'd be one of the first I didn't make run into traffic or become obsessed with accelerants, but I suppose that is the mellowing with age I hear so much about.

[He holds the drink up.]

I mean, what would you do in my position?

In your position...

[She closes her eyes, thinking it over...not that it means she can't still see him, but the gesture remains.]

Kind of a trick question, isn't it? I never did work the way you did. I'd like to say, I'd have just ensured what you knew no one else ever did...

[...Sighing.] But I had that opportunity, and I didn't. Foolish sentimentality, really--I mean, who leaves a guy who named himself Betrayal alive with my real name? Leaves the drones coded not to kill him if ever he turns up? I got no fuckin' idea what to tell you, Lidan.

[He tilts his head, actually.]

The fact that I didn't have to duck your drones was a point in your favor as well, actually. Names are funny things, aren't they? Myoh Feng... Leviathan... Hah.

You have made this far more interesting and less routine than I thought it would be, that much is for certain.

I am to entertain.

[Well, if he's not drinking, she's going to crack open a bottle and....just down half of it.]

Like I said--I expected you'd find me a bit sooner. I'm not stupid enough to think you wouldn't, no matter how well I give a blowjob.

[Grinning, with a fair too many teeth.] Leviathan, Carcharodon, Culebre...all these names and no bite to me. There's a reason I got out when I did, you know.

[What might be really interesting is those last two names were of runners that vanished about the time she would have been in high school--Culebre vanished without trace about fourteen hours before a high-profile CEO had his SIN pinned onto every murdered hooker for the last ten years, after a rumor of setting up Shadowrunners to die. And Carcharodon...may or may not have wrecked the GDP of an entire country, close to the time, if he's done his math right, she met him.]

Oh, so this is where we flex muscle about our big jobs? But I know how old you are, Myoh, I've smelled it in your blood... You would have been sixteen when Culebre hit. You're a lifer -- bet you were a cute little console jockey back then, too.

[He'll give her a moment, maybe to reflect on the fact that he apparently can just smell things out of people's fucking blood. Fucking mages, man.]

Check Seattle Lonestar's casefile V-23872925, though, if we're comparing credentials.

...Well, damn. [Whistling. Yeah, she looked that shit up the moment it was out of his mouth.]

Wasn't intending the pissing contest. I'm just...pointing out, if my fangs are dull now, there's no point in me pretending I'll fight whatever you've decided to do.

I don't want to die, Lidan. and I'm not sure I really want to forget. But I might know better than anyone save you, I can't stop you. Might as well accept this with some dignity.

[The case in question, for those of us on this side of the fourth wall, is a cold case that Lone Star has because they can't explain why a hostage situation ended with someone's private phone going off, them answering, nodding intently, going back and telling the joke to the rest of the kidnappers, and then the team executing the hostages and charging the security force, guns blazing. She can, because she knows more than they do.]

This is it? No last ditch attempt, no trying to poison my drink, a shotgun bolted under the table, anything? Please don't wipe my mind, please don't kill me from the dread Leviathan?

[He sighs, and puts the drink down, before he stands up.]

Fine, fine. I honestly had come to just check up on you, see how the good girl life was working out. Much, much better than I had assumed, apparently.

...I'm not really sure what you expected. [Making an irritated noise.]

I could have had you torn apart at any point from the moment you walked up to the gate, but didn't. Why would I bother letting you close the distance? I know what you can do to me.

I had the best chance to kill you a year ago. I didn't. All I wanted was to find out what you were going to do. Threaten a girl, loom a little, pin a few murders on me, I dunno. Make some move I know what to do with.

Not...not you, of all people, just coming by to see how I was doing.

For the record, the second you were in voice range, all I would have to do is say a few words and it'd be all over. Though your drones don't listen, do they? I suppose my life is in danger, then.

[He shrugs again.]

I've been curious but I figure anyone who's willing to run out on me in the night had some kind of plan. And then I hear you're working legitimately, and I got really curious...

So I wanted to see you. You were the closest thing I had to a friend in awhile, and friends visit eachother, right?

[She's quiet for a while, turning it over in her head. And then she shrugs, and stands up.]

...Wanna see the workshop, then?

[Just like that. No bothering to explain, or anything. Just. Let's treat this like a normal visit.]

Sure thing, Leviathan. Show me your lair, then.

[He's already standing, so now he's just waiting on her.]

Lair? Man, I am behind on decorating if this is supposed to be a lair. I need a lava pit and a longhaired white cat for that, Lidan, and I'm allergic to cats.

[She'll just lead him on into the workshop...which is attached to the garage and is a place of wonder and glory and technological abominations of science. Given the rumpled tiny nest-bed off to one corner, she ends up sleeping in here fairly often.]

Well, at least you've not gone completely dull...

[he looks about with some ready curiosity, but he doesn't really know much of what he's looking at beyond her work. That seems to be enough to at least ease his irritation, though.]

They say you do inspired work.

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