What Does This Button Do?

Participants:

eve_icon.gif julie_icon.gif pride_icon.gif yi-min_icon.gif zachery_icon.gif

Featuring:

chess3_icon.gif

Scene Title What Does This Button Do?
Synopsis "But what does it do?"
Date September 20, 2020

Mysterious Location


"Ok ok but," A pause.

The sound of a chair as someone leans forward.

"What does this button do?"

What have they signed up for?

Eve Mas sits across from her science minded friends and smiles as she points at some kind of machine on a table nearby. She smiles but there's a pinch of nerves there in her blood red glowing eyes. This might be the most unexpected notion to come from Eve yet. A summit with science fairies, she had bribed and not threatened Zachery into allowing there to be use of this space. A favor for a future favor and everyone knew Eve took that sort of exchange with the utmost seriousness.

She's dressed in a simple black dress that she said upon arrival would be easy to remove for any "tests" needing to be run. She hadn't exactly explained why she needed these people here, but the gist of what she was getting at is that there was something that happened to her. Something that changed what she is. Eve needed more answers and her brief excursion into the beyond has not happened again. Was there a trigger?

"I guess I should tell you why I've asked you all here!" Heh, a sheepish grin follows. "I asked my lawyer to get me some of those…" Eve stops and considers, catching the term, "NDAs!" Said as if they are the best new snack in town.


Providence, New Jersey

100% Zachery's lab and not Yi-Min's

September 20th


A wry grin spreads on Zachery's face as if against his will. "Mh—" A throaty noise of doubt carries easily in the largely emptied room, bouncing off of bare brick and cement. "Me and NDAs…"

He stands with his arms folded across his chest, leaning against a back wall near the solid metal staircase where he stares across at those present. Though the largely empty sterile steel and white counters underneath fluorescent lights still divide the space into two halves, the equipment on and in between them is sparse. None of it appears to be on or been used in quite a while.

"You know what," Zachery motions for Eve to continue, shaking his head. "Don't worry about it. Go on."

The fact that one of Emily Epstein’s flesh-and-blood relatives is here provides no comfort to Zachery. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The presence of Julie Fournier-Raith in the back of this run-down cabin in the woods that Zachery calls a lab is partially out of spite, partially out of some other more guarded sense of scientific curiosity.

Julie hasn’t moved far from the entrance, back against the wall and arms crossed over her chest. She regards Eve through the fringe of dark lashes and partly-lidded eyes that contain a level of contempt and anger that borders on incandescent. But for all of the tension that has set her jaw like a steel trap, she has done her level-best to keep quiet on the matter. An invitation was an invitation. The last time she saw Eve Mas, though, wasn’t pleasant. But that isn’t why Julie is here. It’s bigger than that.

Having ridden along with Zachery for this ride, Dr. Ourania Pride had initially begun at the table, but the more Eve has gotten interested in buttons, the more inclined it seems the doctor has been to put distance between herself and the mad (former) oracle. “Please try not to touch anything, Miss Mas,” she requests in a quiet voice. “Scientific equipment tends to be very delicate and very sensitive. Calibrations take ages.

Pride darts glances to the others gathered, suspecting they might appreciate the defense of the machinery they have to work with. There’s a delicate balance being struck by the meek scientist, wherein she’s trying to keep an eye on Ms. Fournier-Raith and not stare at her in the process. But she keeps getting drawn back by the aura of anger she’s putting off. It overpowers Zachery’s annoyance and Eve’s anxiety and hunger.

The whole cocktail of it is inspiring a dull ache behind the empath’s eyes.

Adding onto the salmagundi of negative emotions filling the room is Yi-Min's skepticism, as immobile and solid as a whole boulder resting against the spindly laths of the walls. She appears calm enough, small hands folded before her as she waits for Eve to continue, but the stoniness of her expression is rather greater than usual. Her past experiences with Eve Mas have been decidedly mixed bags, too.

In truth, the only reason she is here at all is that she had already been in town for her usual weekly visit to see Kara.

And whatever harebrained nonsense the ex-seer had summoned them here for is actively taking away from that time. "Do go on," she echoes Zachery, returning Pride's glance with a kind of brief, weary knowingness before sending it back to the focus they share. That's a familiar entreaty in Eve's presence, indeed.

"You've all had to sign things for shadier people! I mean really, what's the balk, dearies?" Eve winks and waits for everyone to sign. Her hand goes to a phone hanging out of her bra and she types out:

Everyone is behaving! YEEHAWW!!

"Yay! Lady Tash will be very pleased!" Eve claps her hands and beams at the people gathered around the room. Ahemahem.

It's serious bizness time.

"On the day of February 27th after tracking Adam to a boat off the coast, deep in the blue, I was taken over by an interdimensional being, an energy many of us here have come to know as The Dragon, The Entity or Uluru." For Julie this maybe seems to be one of Eve's fucking nonsensical moments, but she had already seen the work of the Entity on Eve before and for the others, they had all had their own experiences to lead them to believe Eve. "The end result was B Day. The Battle of Detroit." There's a bit of a grimace, she can still feel guilty for actions not her own.

"When the Mother and Father was ousted from my body on that night, I was gone. Dead. For the fourth time." Zachery's readings of Eve could confirm this. Odessa has already seen one of her deaths in action. "It is said that when you are mixed with It, intermingled like a ball of yarn, that your tiny little genes are changed. Kam Nisatta and Joy - otherwise known as Yaeko - have experienced this, effectively becoming mosaics." Crimson eyes find Odessa in that moment, though and her cousin can feel a burning curiosity directed straight towards her. If Eve had been changed from her dealings with the Entity, in what way had Odessa?

The weight of Eve’s gaze feels uncomfortably heavy upon Odessa Ourania. She puts on a look of confusion, as if to suggest she doesn’t understand why she would find significance in this. She’d put her pen to paper, reluctantly. Not because she was concerned about the matters to be discussed, but because she wasn’t sure she’d want a paper trail that would suggest she’d been involved at all. It’s the interest of others in this topic that makes her anxious.

"The first time The Dragon entered my body and I exploded, I was left with a volatile gift that you all have seen on display. I did not end up blessed with the multiple gifts of a mosaic." A beat, "At first."

"Do you mind if I smoke? Or maybe vape? The kids have gifted me many. What lovely little pens!"

This is the first thing Zachery actually feels equipped to answer, even if it is just with an abrupt, dry chuckle and a dismissive wave of his hand. A growing disquiet that isn't quite sure if it wants to be excitement or anxiety has him float a glance to Julie, then Ourania before his gaze settles back on Eve, brow furrowed.

Eve digs into her dress and pulls out a small doobie, lighting the ends and pinching it as she puffs. "The second time, my genetic code interacted with the Entity." Blowing smoke out of her nose, Eve looks like a dragon herself.

"I awoke in a morgue in Detroit! Brrr. It's cold in here." You see? "To my utter amazement, the poor docs were saying some pretty out there things! She didn't look like that earlier. She was dead! Oh my god!" Eve hands cover her mouth as she snickers lightly. "I booked it out of there and… acquired a vehicle and set off for New York. VROOM." Mimicking the motions of what's probably driving a big rig with a look from each person.

"I look in the rear view, Stevie is on. Real easy ride, my gown is flying in the wind, moon is higher- You get the picture. It's not me! In fact it's the face of a woman I know died that day!" Eve slaps her hands together with a loud smack, joint hanging out of her mouth.

"BAM! I wreck and dumb dumb me didn't have my belt on! I go flying, but! I don't go flying through the window, oh no no. I do this." The joint which has now gone out again drops to the floor as Eve disperses into a cloud of blood red mist. Ourania flinches back at the sight of it. Yi-Min’s eyes visibly narrow. The effect lasts for a few seconds before Eve’s body steps out of the fog again and she bows with a grin on her face.

"So! I seem to have two abilities and with the reports and whispers from Expressives around the world, I'm not the only one." Eve stays leaning forward with her hands on her knees. "I steal corpses! I think! Sadly, the first was a friend’s and Ol Pearly here," pointing at Zachery, "alerted me to the fact that this here body, well, it just won't last long before… spoiling." Haha, she laughs and Odessa feels a spike of actual fear buried beneath the laughter. "I need to know my limits. I'm always… hungry." Avoiding Odessa's gaze. "And my time is running out."

Eve's smile falters a little and she leans back and puts hands on hips. "But why would any of you want to help me?" At this Eve stares directly at Julie and nods. "For science, of course! Isn't that what science fairies love?" Mmm. "My thought! This is fresh, very new territory. Who wouldn't want to be the first to publish the findings of an Expressive that not only manifested two gifts, but also… resurrects themselves?

"The longevity of our species and capability to avoid death isn't as discussed as other aspects of us. Rare maybe, but still. The information must get out there. People need to be informed. There might be others like me out there that can't even begin to understand what they are or how dangerous it can be." Slowly Eve looks at each of them, she's no longer smiling, but her tone holds no less joy.

"None of you work for the government, but all of you have had some sort of entanglement with a shady aspect of our society. Sometimes forced." Eve frowns, "I know you've all done what you need to better the world despite those times, but maybe… maybe this can also be a part of that. Using your skills and your knowledge to discover and inform. I will absolutely never beg you to weaponize whatever you find. This I swear." She falls silent and also falls into a chair nearby, swooping up the fallen, half finished joint.

"Well?"

Well.

Zachery pushes away from the wall, moving back to the table and grabbing a chair by its back to move it aside. The NDA gets pulled closer to read, palms planted on either side as he looms overhead.

"I won't lie-" He begins to answer while he's reading, "Assuming you play nice? This is… an opportunity. An incredibly complicated opportunity, if only from a… purely moral and ethical standpoint… but." Though he doesn't finish his sentence, it's not hard to hear the slow bubbling of eager curiosity make its way to the surface, accompanied by the impatient tap tap of a finger on the table.

In the end, there isn't much of a pause before he reaches to swipe a pen nearby, and casually signs the piece of paper before fixing Eve with a poorly restrained grin. "I actually have a fair amount writing that this could be… extremely relevant to."

“Jesus fucking christ,” is all Julie has to say, and Ouriana can feel a palpable wave of frustration replace anger. It’s all that she can do to not just throw her hands up in the air in frustration and leave now. But there’s something that keeps her rooted, something of similar emotional content to what she’s already been radiating. Julie’s jaw sets, her arms cross over her chest, and she stares at Eve.

After a moment, Julie’s pupils begin to dilate wide, her lips pursed together, shoulders rising and falling as her focus on Eve becomes honed to an edge. Eventually her pupils contract, and Julie’s expression slacks some, her eyes downcast to her feet and shoulders slacked. “She isn’t bullshitting,” Julie says tensely. “About her powers, anyway. She has two abilities.”

“Publish or perish,” Ourania murmurs in the wake of Zachery’s rationale for signing on for this. Her own reasons are both more and less noble. There’s the sense of familial obligation that Eve is no doubt aware of, but there’s also an unbridled fascination with her cousin’s condition that keeps her from walking away from the opportunity.

The emotional output from Julie is enough to make the other blonde turn her head away, as though shifting her visual focus in another direction would somehow diminish how she experiences those emotions. But it’s an onslaught on all sides.

The end result is a frustrated huff of air exhaled through her nose, her lips pursed. Ourania fixes a look of annoyance on Eve. This puts every one of them in danger. This document could be later used to confirm that everyone in this room knew the whereabouts of Eve Mas, no matter how briefly, and (presumably) chose not to report it to the authorities.

Any emotional responses from Yi-Min have been much more muted throughout, though the core of skepticism she had started with is still there. But in that stoic, dormant pit, a slightly different apparition begins to crystallize the longer that Eve talks.

Once it clears the surface of her features, the shape is obvious to the world beyond Dr. Pride as intrigue, pointed as the probing of a knife. It colors in the coolly ineluctable gaze she fixes Eve with after the others have given their initial input.

Yi-Min had paused with a hand resting on her own NDA, but the piece of paper isn't what's occupying her mind even in the slightest.

"I will be frank with you, Eve. This is a show of— responsibility? That I would never have expected from you. Are your intentions truly serious, here?" Discover and inform, the other woman had urged. Given what she knows of Eve's lack of trust in any scientific institution, this sudden blaze of altruism raises a question mark.

She holds still under Julie's scathing gaze. She hides her smile but Odessa can feel the tendrils of pleasure at being proven right by Julie's ability. "Thank you, Julie." Serious indeed when legal names spew from Eve's lips. Zachery's development makes the former seer beam and sway. "Oh Pearly, that brain doing so much work already. Excellent! Have you found anything interesting, mm?" The enthusiasm she feels is stopped short by Yi-Min's gaze and question and her cousin’s look of annoyance. Trust me, O. Her gaze all but pleads.

"Aw stop, you'll make me turn red." There it is again, another ping of nerves surrounding her intentions. It lurks beneath the surface of her surprise and happiness that people are beginning to maybe really believe her.

"Yes, I am absolutely serious. Scout's honor! It is hard to wake people up to what is going on in the world until they have." Eve's face twists up as if actual fact was a not so tasty appetizer that she must indulge in because it's deemed socially improper not to. She was still so used to looking to the Echoes for her insight and belief. "Data. Stone concrete. Nobody listens to prophecies, nobody listens to the seers. Not until it's too late. So a different approach! Cold, hard facts!" Honestly something Eve hasn't totally leaned into or tried before. Her feelings and visions had almost always been enough.

"And I will admit…" Is this the catch? Or just Eve being as upfront as she can be? "The more I can learn about myself and what happened to me, the more chance I can maybe learn something about it." She pauses and looks between them all again with those red eyes. "The Dragon is not finished, not yet. Detroit wasn't even on the menu. We're heading straight for the next course. When it left me, it went to a more familiar host, someone that was used to bending his knee to its will. Adam Monroe is the new host, dearies, and they both will be back."

A weak smile spreads across Eve's black painted lips and eyes wide with now apparent nerves. "So maybe what we do can also maybe help save the world from total annihilation. Stardust." This is delivered quite candidly. Everyone in this room knows the drill. This wouldn't be their first time being alerted to an incoming apocalyptic event.

Zachery aims a sharp glance in Julie's direction at her outburst, though his grin never completely fades. He lets the look linger until her assessment comes, before Yi-Min, too, receives a look of keen interest when she speaks up with something other than the outright argument against he'd expected.

He straightens his back, looking to Ourania and studying her expression as he listens to Eve. Just as the smallest bit of pride and vindication over trusting Eve begins to lift his eyebrows, he hears the end of an exhale leave him in an unexpected laugh.

He turns fully to Eve, his shoulders dropping along with any budding feeling of comfort. Regardless, his grin tics ever wider as both of his hands come up in a universal gesture of hold on. "Eve, sweetheart, darling Eve," he says in near sing-song, if a little crisp, with a sudden dread that's starting to show on his face as he angles his head slightly to one side. "Come the fuck again? Go back to the other thing for a second? The thing about Adam Monroe being the new host for the world ender?"

Most of this nonsense washes over Julie like hot bathwater. She’d been around Eve enough times to know that most of what comes out of her mouth is hot and cold running sewage without something there to keep her focused. Like proper medication. She was willing to let most of it go, but Zachery seems to have struck a nerve.

Don’t,” Julie says flatly, “Dr. Miller. Please. Do not… validate her delusions. Eve, we’re not here to talk about whatever fiction your mind is confusing for reality, and until I have literally any hard evidence that you are not deluded or misguided I’m going to take everything you say as both inaccurate and hostile.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Julie offers a look to Zachery. “I don’t know how well you know Eve, but a decade ago she brutally murdered a doctor being held against his will at the Institute for no other reason than she had a bad dream about him. Doctor Carpenter was a sweet man and you shot him in the head when he was begging for help.”

Suddenly, it is not clear if Julie is here to help Eve. “You should be doing this behind bars, Eve. Or at the very least in a proper psychiatric facility that can treat your psychosis properly. Then, maybe, people will listen to you. Because from where I’m standing it’s never been about the content of your visions, but the fact that you are an unreliable narrator of your own story and prone to violent outbursts.”

The emotion that spirals out of Yi-Min's curiosity is difficult to describe, but there is wryness there between spokes of shadowy watchfulness. When Julie interjects, Odessa can feel the locus of Yi-Min's interest go sliding across the floor of the room to alight onto this new subject, swallowing it up into the existing fold with uninhibited keenness.

"None of this is the point, but I feel I should address it all the same," Yi-Min says softly, her eyes not leaving Eve as she says that. "Now. It is true that I do not know Ms. Mas like you do. I do not know whom she may or may not have murdered. Honestly, I do not particularly care. I can tell you, however, what it is I have seen. That is she is unstable? Violent, prone to outbursts, and a terrible menace to everyone around her? Yes. Most certainly." The tiny smile she slips on for just that moment in time, aimed with a glance towards Zachery, is not entirely kind.

Then her focus returns to Julie without further division, her expression easy and neutral. "But, I also do not know that anything she has told me in the past has been false. I know of this Entity. I have managed to corroborate various snippets of what she has told me of it from other sources, and if she claims Adam Monroe is the newest host, I do not have a reason to disbelieve her. However, as I said, none of this is even the point of this specific discussion."

Yi-Min's gaze seems to grow more distant, and even more placid yet. "If what she is telling us now is a total delusion— if this woman is a danger both to society and to herself, then surely you would agree: having this extremely rare opportunity to better understand her physical abilities will be of even greater benefit to us all."

With that, Dr. Yeh signs her name on her NDA with a quiet, yet very final flourish of her pen.

Mon Dieu.” It’s hard for Ourania to hold her tongue. Not to agree with Julie about Doc Carpenter’s demeanor and express regret about the way he met his end. Not to speak out in defense of Eve, because even if what she’s saying is false or a delusion, she believes it to be true. Not to panic about it. She looks vaguely ill as she considers the ramifications of what Eve’s just shared with them. Her blood runs cold and she dwells on what she knows about the current state of Adam Monroe, and what it would mean for him to be host to the entity known as Uluru. Briefly, her focus settles on Zachery before splitting between Yi-Min and Julie.

“Doctor Yeh is right,” she says finally, shoulders hunched and looking meek. She barely lifts her gaze from the floor, always seeming to be so afraid of speaking out of turn. “Whether or not this Monroe is the… host for whatever it is Miss Mas believes she was possessed by, it doesn’t change what we’re here to do. If there’s something to be learned about what happened to her, we owe it to— to others to discern what it means. To determine what can be done to protect others.”

She lifts her gaze to Julie’s. Not to challenge, but to empathize. Because she doesn’t disagree with her former ward either. Something has to be done, but Odessa surely does not have the answers.

There are no words for Doc at first, that transgression she's lived with for almost a decade. What's done is done.

The future is unreliable. And so too can Eve be. "I have never claimed to be an angel. I never lied to you, told you what you were doing was good work. I never forced you to experiment on others. Metal pings and needle things. I annoyed you personally and then later interrupted a drug deal gone sideways. That's all. Really my girl, if you were such a righteous figure you wouldn't associate yourself with the people you do. Sasha. Dear goddess above and below," There's a moment of silence and Eve raises an eyebrow. "Look past my misdeeds the same way you do that awfully smelly man."

"Your Doc scared me. I had a flash of my vision when we met him in that hall. It was so dark, then the light hit his face so. An impulsive act to defend my family from a potential attacker in a… extremely volatile situation. What of dear Elliot? Of Lynette? The people who would have done far worse in my position because they were subjected to experiments done by that science fairy. Do you think they cared? Hell! Lady Zeus was right there! You can be angry at me, but your friend's life was already over the moment he crossed paths with any of us." Julie and Odessa both knew how insane the day of the Ark's falling was. "I am sorry for the loss of life, the loss of another of our kind, but if you're going to cry out at the fact that a murderer is running willy nilly on the world, look very carefully around you. And around the Safe Zone." And beyond.

The older woman stomps over near Julie and snatches a small leather satchel on one of the tables nearby. She doesn't slam it down in front of Julie, but firmly places it on a table in front of the young blonde, a peace offering of sorts. "For what you lost when we last met, I try to make amends. Always. I am sorry for what I've done to you, but we don't have time for judgements on each other. Of that I am also sorry."

Backing away so she can look at the others as well, "I asked you all here because despite our differences I value your opinions. You are also all the smartest people I know. Biggg big brains." Eve leans against a chair and grabs the top with her hands. She thanks her cousin, Yi-Min and Zachery for their words and her crimson gaze once again finds Julie's face.

"You may go after delivering your delicious shade, call the fuzz, none of the people here will speak to having seen me and I will not be found." A shrug of her shoulder, "Or, you can do as the very bright Yi-Min suggests." A suggestion that is truly Eve's only fear in this situation. "The more you learn about me, the more chance you have of stopping me if I lose my way." Regardless, Julie's confirmation of Eve's dual wielding of abilities had already eliminated one thing she needed to convince people of. Anything else from Julie would be extra but also a clear boon with the knowledge she had of abilities. Eve needed the young woman to work with them and if she couldn't get her to side with them as total allies.

A watchful enemy it would have to be.

As much as Zachery's expression of stunned amusement overstays its welcome, Julie's words seem to do enough to remind him of the gravity of the situation. He clears his throat and recomposes himself, his face falling back to neutral just in time to catch Yi-Min's subtle jab at his expense. It further tightens the screws on a deliberate effort to stay calm, collected - though Ourania has a unique perspective on how surprised he is to find this doesn't seem to take much effort at all.

He's worked with murderers, against his will and not. He was close enough to the madness that was Eve's last death that her being possessed feels the last thing he'd question right now. For better or worse, he's not scared, and anxiety is shaken off like an old coat. His voice steadies with the confidence of a new idea when he posits, "If she wants science, we'll treat this as a science."

He steps forward, shoulders squared. "We take her theories and we test them for truths. What I'm hearing, however, is that we need you to consider the alternative." He fixes Eve with an anticipatory stare, a wrangled back bit of intrigue only just pulling at a corner of his mouth.

His words slow, in the same way he'd spoken to her when she was on the ground, when he'd seen her suffering not long ago. "Eve." He tries, with sincere kindness in his voice. "What if you are wrong? Theoretically - if we engage you in this, this is within the scope of possibilities."

He pauses for a beat, then adds, "Would you still trust us?"

Julie had gone stone-cold quiet, and when Zachery poses his question to Eve there’s no shortage of silence from Julie to allow the born-again seer time to compose her thoughts.

Julie looks down at the NDAs laid out, then back up to Eve. Her brows knit together and lips press in a thin line. Ouriana could tell she checked out, emotionally, the moment the name Sasha was raised. Nostrils flaring, it doesn’t take an empath to know what she’s feeling when all the color first drains out of her face and then is replaced by a feverish red.

“Fuck you,” is Julie’s blanket statement to all of this, snatching up her jacket in a snap of anger and jerkily pulling it over her shoulders. She doesn’t have anything else to offer at all except for the incandescent rage spilling off of her like fumes in her nostrils.

Whatever lax reaction Yi-Min might have been about to put forth to all of this discourse is displaced by a larger body of curiosity, almost just as lax, for the answer Eve has to Zachery's question.

So, she just raises one fine brow at the former purveyor of visions, wondering what sort of vision she has for this.

Ourania is torn between staying with her cousin, trying to talk her through the necessity of creating a plan and sticking to it from here, and following after the woman whose feelings have been just devastated by Eve’s cavalierness.

Watching the other blonde grab her coat, the anger slams into her and sees Dr. Pride’s jaw setting tight. She fixes Eve with a look and shakes her head. If she was looking for a button to press, she’s found it. This is what that button does. Huffing a frustrated sigh, she starts to move after the younger. “Julie, wait!”

"I would have too." Eve says to Zachery, but Julie is making her exit and Eve makes a mental note to check up on the young blonde's movements to make sure she didn't rat them all out. A note about a Refrain addiction could discredit her easily enough though. The pale woman smiles softly and lifts a hand in a wave, "Thank you for your time Julie. I'll see you soon dear."

At least Julie had given them some insights to work with.

"Perhaps I was a little too harsh." A shrug, "Almost nobody is gentle with me." There's a bit of heartache at Julie's anger. Eve didn't want Expressives fighting each other. One Day she could maybe make things right.

There isn't much Zachery can do, or looks like he wants to do. He steps to the side, taking a spot beside Eve to watch Julie storm off. Yi-Min is offered half of a shrug, and Ourania taking the initiative to fetch the runaway means she's the one he watches next, expectantly.

In the meantime, he leans slightly closer to Eve, and says with his voice slightly lowered, "You're about as gentle as a jackhammer, Fanny. Still. Shame."

The young daughter of Jensen Raith stands up and gathers her coat, slinging it over her shoulders with a narrow-eyed look at Eve. But that look fixes square on Ourania instead. “Don’t,” she says through clenched jaws, one hand up as she makes her way out.

Just don’t.” Julie’s heels hit hard on the floor, growing fainter over time.

"To be fair, Miss Mas, you often make it awfully hard to be gentle with you." In the wake of Julie's overly melodramatic exit, in spite of herself, Yi-Min can only sound a little wry.

But she's also deadly serious, momentary tint of lightheartedness in her manner aside. Beneath all of that, there is a clear view to all of a solid, stonily poised moment of judgment.

"You might find that in this world, initial impressions are everything." And Yi-Min doesn't feel like she needs to remind Eve of how the one with her had gone.

Ourania shrinks back when Julie verbally shoves her away. The strength of her emotion is enough to halt any pursuit from Dr. Pride. “It doesn’t matter how others treat us, Eve,” the remaining blonde counters insistently. “Perpetuating that cycle serves no one. Least of all you.” She sweeps an arm demonstratively in the direction of Julie’s exit. Being harsh with her caused her to go, caused them to lose an asset that could have proved valuable in this project.

Maybe she can ask Richard to check in on her. Ourania leans on her cane and makes her way back to an unoccupied seat, dropping down to sit heavily.

"I suppose you all are right…" Eve watches the door that Julie had left through, a grain of regret threatens to bloom but she calms the coming storm of guilt as she always does, for Eve, when something is hard to face you just… flipped it around. Presto! "Pity, maybe we can send her flowers? Cookies." Lamenting away at Julie's life and circumstances is unfortunately not why Eve gathered the folks here today but she meant to make things right with Julie. Eve was persistent like that, she didn't care.

She'd probably fail, but trying was worth it.

"Now then my sweet chickies."

Eve claps her hands together and becomes the swirling red mist form she's come to taking. Through her field of vision she sees the trio of twinkling lights representing the people in the room with her. She feels the drive and hunger, to seep over them and embrace. To drain, to sustain herself. To sustain what she had become.

An urge she clamps down upon in hopes of smothering it for good.

But the urge to drain and feast is as persistent as Eve, maybe more so.

That ball of red smoke bunches together and settles on a nearby table where Eve materializes, drumming her fingers on the surface while eyeing the remaining science fairies with gleaming mad crimson eyes.

"Who wants to poke me with a needle first?"


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