B-Side

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"That's a compliment." Ryn decides with a grin. "Your voice and my hammer." Is she learning innuendo? No, she's just accidentally landing adjacent to it when trying to use metaphor-words.

The dance is almost enough to make Ryn forget about the plan. Not quite, but it's an odd thought that goes trough her had that if all they did was dance tonight, she wouldn't mind it at all. She can tell Katarina is nervous; muscles tremble in anticipation and she's learned some of their subtleties beyond plain fear. These are not-so-good-trembles. Better than terror-fear but not the soft ones either.

"It will be okay. I am here." she says and as if to prove a point, dips Katarina low, only holding her with her hand in the small of her back.

[Katarina Kane]

"I know you are," Katarina grinned. "You'll always have my back," she said, as a couple flashbulbs popped for the starlet and her bodyguard. More eyes on them, joining whatever it was Ryn was sensing earlier.


Casey Rose was not one of the ones on the dance floor, or paying overly much attention to the girls dancing. He was paying more attention to the buffet table, somewhere he clearly spent a lot of time if the strain on his sansabelt trousers was anything to judge by. This was clearly a man who indulged his appetites, and the case of the missing deviled eggs and shrimp cocktails in his immediate vicinity did not require a squadron of Agents to unravel. He was chatting up some young girl in an almost-dress, eyes running up and down her as if he was eying up something else to wash down with watered-down champagne, his lips curling upwards in a lascivious sneer. He rubbed at his nose a couple times while they chatted -- well, while he talked and she laughed at all the proper times and pretended not to notice his hand reaching down to cup her ass. In a few moments, he would head down to his office, but for now, he was letting his appetites run the day.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Katarina can feel Ryn's hand tighten against her back and playful display of motion and strength turns into steel for a moment. She's a spring-loaded knife and it takes significant effort and the girlfriend in her arms to not launch herself across the dancefloor.

She smoothly lifts Katarina out of the dip and literally lifts her off her feet an inch or two as she swings her around 180 degrees and gently sets her down. "Is it time?"

[Katarina Kane]

"We can keep him waiting for one more song, if you'd prefer. After all, I'm no longer the young girl lining up for the hopes for an audition," Katarina grinned, maybe not being quite as aware as Ryn was to what was going on -- or perhaps just more jaded against it.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn makes a face, pulling her mouth to the side, which Katarina has come to learn as her being conflicted.

"No. I don't like the idea of this man doing as he pleases for even that much longer." And it's true. Being so brazen in his disregard of personal space has stoked the fire in Ryn's chest but more than that, what Katarina said reminded her that the Siren too once had to deal with him.

[Katarina Kane]

"Well, then. No time like the present," Katarina smiled, swallowing down some of the nerves. She took one more flute of champagne, taking sips from it as the two headed towards the door, down the stairs into the building away from the rooftop party and towards where work was occasionally done.

Casey Rose's office was well situated -- not a corner office; he was a little too low on the totem pole for that, but still with a nice view of the city below, the twinkling lights of downtown visible as a backdrop. The office itself was moderately spacious, and not particularly crowded with furniture. A wooden desk with a powerful computer on it; a plush chair (leather); a bookshelf with memorabilia from the various foreign pop stars Rose managed (and notably, very few actual books); golden records and photos of him with young starlets on the walls. A potted plant that was clearly plastic. An overstuffed leather couch. And a low table, where Casey sat, cutting out some white powder on a hand mirror.

"Ah, Kata. You're early! Love to see you, love to see you. And I see you've brought your friend with you, too -- Lynn, right? Well, the more the merrier," he grinned. "Shut the door behind you, would you sweetheart? Thanks."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Ryn." she says and closes the door. Not quite heavily enough to slam it but with enough force to give it a threatening thud along with her keeping her hand flat against it for a couple of seconds while her eyes roam across the pictures of what to Ryn can only read as victims. "And she prefers Katarina."

She does abandon her post guarding the door after a couple moments. She knows she's not being seen as a threat or an obstacle and it's not like she couldn't stop this particular human from leaving from pretty much anywhere in the room. And the part of her that lives for the hunt kind of hopes he will try to run at some point. Maybe she'd even let him get into spitting distance of the perceived safety of the party. But no, that's probably not how this is going to go down. She saunters over to the desk under the guise of idle curiosity, running her fingers over the things on it, setting off the newton's cradle thingie and casually palming a letter opener.

[Narrator]

"Ryan, of course," Casey said, with a leering grin. "A pleasure, of course. So nice of you to come, too. C'mon, sit next to me, have a line.

And me and Kata go way back, waaaaay back. She was just some skinny little Europop star, remember? And then I brought her in, I saw the potential in her, and look at her now! The talk of the town," he grinned. "And I'm so glad you finally took my advice and got some work done. You look fabulous Kata, absolutely fabulous. My favorite little star."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Everything about this man is grating. The way he flaps his mouth to say things that only proof he isn't listening and claim credit for Katarina's work. The way he sits and holds himself as if expecting to be waited on and snatch at anything that comes too close. If it wasn't for Katarina attempting to explain The Business to her Ryn would utterly fail to see how anything about this man is enough of a lure to draw in anybody. She still doesn't really get it, but she does recognize the predator, even if she doesn't quite understand his tools. The dried and crushed ayu-coca she does, at least.

"She sings, dances and acts. What do you do?" she asks as she moves closer and pushes a line of coke into a pile with her thumb before sliding it off the mirror and into the crook between thumb and index finger. Without breaking eye contact with Casey she brings it to her nose and snort it in one quick inhale. If it affects her it doesn't show whatsoever. "Get intoxicated and grope women?"

[Narrator]

"The mouth on this one! A lil spitfire. I like that,' Casey laughed. "I've got an eye for talent, sweety," he explained to Ryn. "I can tell when someone has 'it' or not. A special something. You can find a chick with decent pipes and enough plastic in their chest to float on water in any two-bit bar in the city. I'm just the one who spots the ones we can plaster on posters on every teenage boy's wall. Although, I'll admit, the, uh, the scales? That's pretty dang freaky, even I couldn't have thought of that. They go all the way down, do they? And your friend here -- you have any special talents of your own, babe?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Dislocating joints." she says, ambiguous as to her own or others. "Would you like me to demonstrate?" she asks with a grin.

[Katarina Kane]

"A contortionist! My, you Czech girls are freaky, aren't you? Well, good ol' Casey is game. Let me just do a quick line here to get the old boy up and..."

"I think that's quite enough. Freeze, Mr. Rose,," Katarina commanded, and Casey...stopped cold, half bent over, finger against the side of his nose. His eyes darted around, but the rest of him remained rigid and stuck.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Very freaky." Ryn grins, putting her not-quite-human teeth on display before grabbing Casey's forehead and giving him a shove that sends the rigid man toppling back into the couch at an awkward angle.

She eyes him for a moment, then casually grabs the edge of the table and flips it over and out of the way to stand in front of him. "And you're in luck that Katarina is in charge tonight and not me. But let me make something abundantly clear because you were having trouble listening earlier and I've been given many names by pathetic men like you in hopes it would appease me." She rolls her shoulders and her 'wings' unfurl like a writhing cloak of darkness. "I am Erynies Adrasteia and if I had my way I would tear out your ribs one by one before crushing your rotten heart in my fist." she says, holding her close hand in front of his face and clenching it so hard her own joints and knuckles make an audible crack for emphasis.

[Katarina Kane]

Rose made a whimpering sound -- the best he could do, unable to close his mouth or speak as he fell back onto the couch, awkwardly looking up at Ryn. The dampening around his pants indicated that some movement was possible, even over Katarina's command, however.

"He's a lot more palatable like this, isn't he?" Katarina said, walking up beside Ryn. "Maybe we cover him in plaster and sell him to LACMA. That's what we do in a capitalist country, right? Make money off of other people's bodies?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Who would pay anything for this?" she asks genuinely and pokes Casey's burgeoning jowl with the letter opener. "Men like him have existed always and they are never good for anything. You'd find more useful things underneath a dead tree. Less foul too." she adds, wrinkling her nose.

[Katarina Kane]

Casey's face compressed and sprung back as Ryn poked at him, his eyes darting back and forth.

"Oh, our good friend Mr. Rose is good for a great many things, Ryn. He has influence, and money, and power in the music industry. And with that comes a certain sense of entitlement, and access to young girls who dream of making it big. Just how many people have sang for you, Mr. Rose? How many have come to you looking for fame and glory, and how many have found themselves on your couch, thinking that they'll have to do anything you ask for a chance at making a name for themselves?"

Casey couldn't answer, his grunting increasing as he tried to do...something. Anything. To defend himself, to call for security, to justify his actions. For the moment, though, Katarina's last command held true.

"Power, Ryn. It's a shame when it's in the wrong place, isn't it? And it's a shame when people can't find a place more fitting for their station," Katarina mock tutted. "That won't do at all."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn has to admit that this is certainly striking terror-fear into the man's heart, even if his expression of it is limited, but the idea of a more productive and poetic punishment than death is still... odd to her. Giving someone like this chance to live on and change for the better - even if forced - is still a bit too complex for her to fully wrap her head around. Death is easy. Unwanted things perish in the furnace of her anger and then they're just gone. Erased. No risk of anything festering once more. But they had talked about this and the world is so much more confusing now, so much more Katarina's than Ryn's. And she'll always have the truly irredeemable ones.

"Does he even know how to make things right?" Ryn asks, intending it to be a dismissive taunt but there's a bit too much projection in it and it ends up sounding uncertain. Something that suddenly makes her feel like she hasn't in a very long time. Judged. She tries to shake the feeling off, they still have a job to do trying to mold this useless lump into a weapon to strike at the rot creeping through this city.

"He couldn't hunt down his collaborators if you tied a knife to his hands and told him to. I mean look at him." she says and flicks one jowl up with the letter opener, adding enough force it draws a droplet of blood.

[Katarina Kane]

"No, I don't suppose he does," Katarina says, with a mock sigh. "It's been quite some time since he did any thinking with that head of his; I'm fairly sure Mr. Rose has allowed himself to be led around by the one between his legs for years at this point."

Casey tried to protest, and tried to lean away from Ryn, to no avail.

"Well, it's a good thing we're here then, isn't it? We can help poor Mr. Rose find a more promising place along the straight and narrow. An empty vessel is easier to fill, and even the fattest of fatted calves can serve as bait for larger prey, wouldn't you say?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"They get larger than this?" she snorts.

"I know how to bait a trap but this hunt happens in strange ways. Words and gatherings. Make him tell us how his web connects to other spiders."

[Katarina Kane]

"Hrm, yes, that's a good start. Mr. Rose, you may speak when spoken to. Answer Ryn's questions with 100% honesty. And call her....ma'am,," she added after a moment, as she looked through the papers on Casey's desk.

[Narrator]

"I don't know anything about any spiders!" he blurts out in an attempt to fight off the compulsion, but unfortunately for him, he understands perfectly well what Ryn actually means and being 100% honest means he has to be completely honest with himself. Which aside from making him fail his attempt at being clever is also a deeply unpleasant experience. It might not have been entirely intended on Katarina's part but she just stripped the man of any and all justifications and excuses he has build around himself over the years and left him staring down the trajectory of his life without anything to turn aside the blunt truth.

"But I know people. I never ask any questions but I can still tell what's going on. Ma'am." he goes on and with some control over his face allowed his expression twists into anguish. "They've got eyes on all the usual places. Airport, the greyhounds, the docks, they keep track of promising tale--" he literally chokes on the lie he's told others and himself for so long and Ryn can swear she hears his voice-box crack a little from muscles cramping in his neck. "Victims. They're victims, alright? I only ever asked them for the ones with hopes and ambitions, they're easier to -- easier to manipulate and I slept better pretending there weren't others, more desperate or illegals. I never touched any of that, I swear, ma'ams!"

"But you knew." Ryn says, her voice as flat and cold as a knife.

"Yes! And I bragged about it sometimes. Used it as leverage to make deals, pointed people in the right direction their needs. I did. I did do that. I didn't care because I was shaking hands with people, making money. The only ones who mattered to me were the talented ones who'd end up tied to me and the rest, people disappear all the time, who cares about a bunch of untalented nobodies."

"I do." Ryn snarls and drives her heel against the side of his knee, producing an audible pop and a strangled scream.

"Yes, right, yes, you do, ma'am!" he whines, unable to clutch his dislocated knee or even position it in a way that doesn't have his leg dangling. "I don't have names for all of them but some, I do have some. And phone numbers. Some went dead a while ago, when that gas explosion happened? Didn't realize that that was one of them but people talk and supply goes hokey right after. Lotta money changing hands to keep it from blowing up, cops ain't cheap but whose gonna listen to some broad pressing charges about some crazy shi--" he chokes on his own voice again as Ryn stares at him. Her eyes may be no longer filled with dread but the knowing grin on her face does a lot of work to fill in the gaps.

"The contacts, they're in my safe. Not--not the one by the desk, there's... behind the shelf, the middle one, second from the top behind the picture of me and Jane Fonda? It's 53 left, 69 right, 14 left, 35 right."

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina had gone paler and paler as Casey spun his story, her hands gripping tighter and tighter on the papers she was looking through on his desk.

"H...he's yours, Ryn," Katarina said, as she made her way towards the door, unsteady.

[Rhea and Mei]

The door closes behind Katarina and leaves Ryn to dispense whatever she deems appropriate justice.

The party outside doesn't seem particularly appealing right now either but before she can even consider returning to the roof or taking the elevator down to wait for Ryn to finish she's greeted by two women in the short hallway outside Casey's, leaning against the wall and each others' shoulders. One of them is tall and slender but toned in the same unassuming way Ryn is. She's wearing a simple dress that's barely more than a sheet hemmed in above the chest and at the waist, no shoes and a cloak that's fastened around her neck with an odd clasp of two claws hooked into each other. The other one is a bit shorter, roughly Katarina's height but easily twice her weight, almost all of it muscle. She has the build of someone competing in shotput and weightlifting at the Olympics, statuesque in the sense that she gives off the aura of a giant piece of granite. She's wearing the same kind of simple dress as the other one and nothing else along with a perpetual frown that's reinforced by a pointed snaggletooth sticking up from her mouth.

The first woman huffs in the same manner Ryn does when it's clear she doesn't want to be here, but without the implication that there is somewhere else she'd actually enjoy being. This woman's best mood seems to be 'annoyed' and only gets worse from there. She pushes herself off the wall and takes two steps towards Katarina and into the middle of the hall to block her path. "How dare you, Siren. Can you not even stomach to watch the bloodshed? Is she just your jagged rock in the surf upon which men will gut themselves for you!?"

[Katarina Kane]

Damn it, why hadn't she worn her gun to the party. Rookie move, Kane.

"Today is not the day you want to be upsetting me, whoever you are," Katarina frowned. "Step aside, please."

[Rhea and Mei]

That makes the broader one of the two take a step forward as well, arms crossed in front of her. She open her mouth but the only thing coming out is a kind of guttural noise. Katarina is trained enough in paying close attention to detail that she can tell the woman has no tongue. The tall one seems to have understood her perfectly fine anyway. "Hmph. Headstrong. More like impudent, Mei." The strong one gives kind of a half shrug in response.

"Either way! We will upset who we wish, no need to thank us. Surely you know there's strength in fury, even if you don't care to witness it's fruits." she goes on, tilting her head in the vague direction of the apartment Katarina just left. As if on queue there's a muffled thump. "At least you didn't deprive her of that when you domesticated little Ryn."

[Katarina Kane]

"Ryn has never mentioned you, and if you are beneath her notice, than you are beneath mine. And I require no council, thank you very much," Katarina said, crossing her arms.

[Rhea and Mei]

"Typical! The little loner." the woman exclaims with a grunt in the positive from Mei. "I bet she didn't even mind the wilderness. Which makes it even more infuriating that she's among all these people now!"

"And none ever asked counsel of us; we're not about to start giving it." she adds and a grunted comment from the other one seems to redirect her anger and attention. "She truly never spoke of us!? How low the world has been brought by Man." she says with an almost comedic level of vitriol in her voice that'd put her right at home with some of the more radical second wave feminists. "Even little Erynies willfully forgetting her big sisters!" she laments and snaps in equal measure.

"Furiae? Eumeinides?" she gestures at herself, then at the woman next to her. "Rhea, Mei and Ryn. The Sisters of Fury, Vengeance and Retribution?"

[Katarina Kane]

"Tryouts for girl groups are usually handled on a different floor," Katarina deadpanned. "And during business hours. But you've got a real Vixen look; that's in nowadays, so as long as one of you can play a guitar, you're probably fine."

[Rhea and Mei]

That seems to take Rhea aback to the point she literally takes half a step backwards and finds herself at a loss of what to say.

"We are not -- how dare you assume -- the Furies perform for no mortal!" she huffs while the other one, Mei, seems vaguely entertained by this. She adds a guttural sound that very clearly carries a laugh in it even if the actual meaning isn't immediately clear. Rhea seems to understand it though and does not seem amused at all. "Ryn would not -- that is -- You are so crude, Mei! To even -- with her!? And to call us vixen when it's the siren that clearly tempted little sis to -- to -- mingle with mortals." she finally settles on, scandalized.

[Katarina Kane]

"You'll forgive me if I don't have time to play into...whatever expectations of me you have or neurosis you've managed to develop. I've just found out that the company I work for is involved in a human trafficking ring, and I was just spotted going downstairs with someone who has just been murdered, with me as the clear last appointment in their schedule, so I will be suspect number one. I'm swamped."

[Rhea and Mei]

As if on cue there's the sound of glass breaking, followed by the distant sound of something heavy but squishy hitting the ground. And then something heavy like, for instance a safe, crashes to the ground outside. Knowing Ryn she probably took the most obvious route and left the building the same way Casey just did.

"What a shame if you'd end up beholden to mortal laws." Rhea snipes sarcastically, causing Mei to elbow her in the side as if to say 'Be nice'. It does end up nudging and moving them out of Katarina's way, even if Rhea still looks like she wants to do... what exactly? She kind of has the demeanor of a bully who never outgrew high-school and has decided to have a problem with Katarina for some inexplicable reason.

[Katarina Kane]

"Hrm, yes, I suppose you don't know much about the ways of mortals, do you? Well, here's a cultural sign, designating the proper amount of respect, that you can puzzle over," Katarina said, flipping the two of them off, as she turned to continue heading towards the elevators and escape.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn is, in fact, waiting for Katarina just outside the building. A good twenty meters away are the remains of a fancy car, cabin crumpled in by the impact of the safe embedded in it. Other details such as the source of the growing puddle of blood are thankfully obscured by the dim lighting in the lot. The Deva is holding a bundle of papers, including a literal little black book, presumably taken from the safe. Unlike the rest of the contents, mostly cash, that is floating down from the shattered window above like some kind of contrail.

"Done." she simply says. Then wraps her arms around Katarina in a firm hug and adds a quiet "You will be okay?"

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina shrugged off the hug.

"No, I shall not be OK. This night has been a disaster, and there will be repercussions throughout. A senior VP murdered, a starlet as the primary suspect, a human trafficking ring involved? The tabloids would have a field day with this. Not to mention Mr. Rose is...is...." she trailed off.

"No time for that now. Much to do before the dawn."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"What can I do?" she asks, uncertain and out of her element in dealing with these kinds of repercussions. It probably doesn't help that the damaged car chooses this exact moment to catch on fire with a minor explosion that perfectly frames Ryn.

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina flinched, swearing as the explosion went off

"You are faster than I am. I have a bug out bag in the apartment hidden in the closet -- passports, some money, a change of clothes. You need to go get that, quickly "

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"We're running?"

[Katarina Kane]

"Between the police and whoever is running that trafficking ring, I will become a target. Too many people saw me going into that office; there is too much evidence that I was going to be there, and I am too high-profile to just disappear.

I need a plan of attack to get out of this, and I do not have one yet. Not a good one, anyway. So 'not being found' buys time "

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Hide, not run. Got it." she nods and slips out of her suit jacket to swiftly tie it into an improvised messenger bag for her 'loot'. "I will find you if you have to go." And then she's off, sprinting down the street and disappearing into the night.

[Katarina Kane]

Katrina took a deep breath and sprinted for the alley -- being around a dead body and the smoldering remains of a car was not a good place to be right now, and as much as this first attempt to do anything had gone up in smoke, throwing it all away by being caught there would be even worse. No sense turning a disaster into a nightmare.

Katarina's mind went in whirls as she tried to figure this out. People had seen them at the party. They had made quite a show at the party. And then they had left the party, shortly after Rose. And she had an appointment with Rose. There'd be a note of that, with the secretary or something. That was pretty damning evidence. And there was no way she could siren-call everyone into believing that it hadn't happened; that sort of...mass manipulation? Even if it was in her power, which she doubted, she couldn't keep that on forever. No, she was well and truly fucked.

Except...

They had left after Rose early. Katarina had even told Ryn they had more time, but Ryn had insisted on going early. And yet, no one knew that's why the left early. They had just seen two girls dancing and drinking and then leaving the party. Sure, they might have thought she was going downstairs, but it's not like they had announced they were going to a meeting. She was a pop star who had had too much to drink. Could they just say she was in the bathroom? Hungover and had to go home? No, that wasn't strong enough -- the police would see through a lazy lie like that. She hadn't been entirely not paying attention when being trained in the East. The best defense is an active defense. It wasn't enough to not be somewhere. It was more 'proof' if she actively was somewhere else. Somewhere well-documented, even if she had to fudge a clock or two and a memory or three.

Clear hearts. Full determination. And speed brought on by winging her way through the night, hoping against hope that no one was going to take a picture of that. Thankfully, who carried a camera along with them at night? If people just happened to have cameras with them at all times, she'd be in trouble, but that's crazy sci-fi fantasy talk.

_______

The next morning, news of a high-profile record exec falling out of a window, and the explosion of his car, would make headlines, albeit not on the front page of the newspapers. On the tabloids, however...

SPARKLED STARLET GOES WILD — Drunk, Nude, and Dancing on Tables!"

Witnesses say starlet "forgot her name, her clothes, and the laws of decency" during midnight meltdown at L.A. hotspot!

This was accompanied by a photo of Katarina, topless and holding a bottle of champagne with one hand and her other arm around a shirtless man's waist, standing on top of a table and singing along at a nightclub, along with the story describing her drunken antics and the fact that LA's finest were called to bring her in to the drunk tank. Multiple witnesses told the tabloid about Katarina coming into the nightclub, clearly already tipsy, and getting smashed and handsy with the patrons. Coincidentally, her arrival time was sait to be about 10 minutes before the explosion at the record company party...