Private Calling Upon A Snowbird

[Evelyn Shaw]

“Something like that yeah, with a few more steps in between.” Evelyn chuckled as she watched Amea’s eyes dance around, contemplating what they were going to need to do in order to pull this off. She had the advantage over Evelyn here, having spent however long in this city already.

“We do some intel gathering, figure out what family it is, who are alive and which is the weakest link that’ll benefit our goal the most. At the same time we need to figure out something the family wants to keep under wraps, either through a separate investigation or by convincing the family member to spill the beans.”

That in itself wasn’t going to be easy. It would require trying to get the family member to turn on their family’s Head. Bitter as they may potentially be, if they were still alive it meant they were sensible enough to not go against them.

An idea crossed Evelyn’s mind, but she was hesitant to bring it up. It required Amea to not be caught by surprise.

Feth it. Amea shared something that was clearly personal to her. What I’m being tight lipped about is hardly the same.

“I might have to make use of an old name, which to state the probable obvious...The reason I’m so knowledgeable about this stuff, is because a side of my family originated from one.” Evelyn looked a bit sheepish again, scratching the back of her neck. “My grandma’s side specifically, but that’s detail that ain’t needed right now.”

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

There were three of them. Granted that only one seemed to have the greater presence spread across the entire planet it was fair to assume that they were the ones Amea had angered. The other two were too small to pose a threat and was more than likely a simple front to help the big one maintain control, like vassals left to bicker beneath a negligent king. The Fierra Triad and the Kung Cartel, posed right beneath each thumb of the Corefront Mob.

As Evelyn began to bring up her past there was a shot of guilt through Amea. As much as she wanted to be surprised she really was not, the Echani had merely confirmed what she already suspected. Her head nodded up and down without judgment. This was if anything a very handy experience to have in their line of work.

“Hey, that’s cool.” Amea said and shrugged the guilt off as she let her arms rest against the edge of the counter. “Wish I could say my grandma was a mobster as well. Or, well, real.”

“So, where do we begin?” Amea asked and glanced down at the counter. “When?”

“I was attacked outside ‘Club Fantasy’, probably mistaken for one of the girls.” She scoffed. “I’d argue going back there will be a mistake but it’s the best lead we have.”

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

Evelyn raised an eyebrow at Amea’s mention of her grandma ‘not being real’, but as much as her curiosity peaked at that, she bottled it up. Now was not the time, besides her own grandma wasn’t a mobster per se, but again...a subject for another time.

“Well it might not be a good idea for you, but no one is going to suspect me if I go alone.” The Echani already had an idea in mind, given a certain image she projected walking around armed to the teeth.

“The question is, are you going to be able to keep yourself here while I’m out?” She posed the question, giving Amea a knowing look. Evelyn looked over at Hoshi, who by this point had finished his fruit and was simply watching.

“I’d ask you to keep an eye on her, but I have a feeling you'd be a bad influence on each other.” She joked, knowing full well Amea would likely ensure Hoshi remained behind if she left the confines of the ship.

But that didn't account for the likelihood that Hoshi would follow her.

“Once I get information on the family, who we can target, then I’ll return and we can go from there, together.” She looked at Amea, trying to gauge her reaction. "I doubt anyone is going to suspect your hiding out on a seemingly random ship that's docked. So in the meantime, you can try and relax some more, watch some holo-movies or something."

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

Alone? The idea garnered a visible reaction: a frown and a look of worry as she played with the idea that Evelyn got herself caught in a lie. If mobsters were creatures of pride then they most definitely wouldn’t be the kind that took too kindly if they caught you in one. Part of her wanted to rise out of her seat and get her jacket on, but the gentle tug of a small hand on her upper arm made her rethink it, a newfound smile spread across her lips as she glanced into Hoshi’s almost begging eyes.

She exhaled with mirth. “Okay,” Amea said and let her hand wiggle against the top of his head. “If it makes you feel better.” It wasn’t clear if she was talking to the creature or the Echani at that point. Her eyes wandered over towards Evelyn. “Does he have any kind of, you know, favorite movie? Anything he’s not allowed to watch?” She grinned at the little man. “He’s so small after all.”

Hoshi didn’t seem amused by it, his tongue stuck out between his lips as Amea turned back towards Evelyn yet again.

“I’ll babysit, and you’ll hunt for names. I’d say that’s fair. Probably the same amount of work in the end, right?”

Well, they had already agreed anyway so it was practically too late for Evelyn to withdraw. They finished their preparations. For Evelyn it was a matter of getting her jacket on, and for Amea it was a matter of cleaning up what little remained from the meal. As they separated she found herself worried, and yet as the hours passed it seemed as if the feeling had gradually disappeared.

By the time Evelyn was back Amea had already been asleep for a while. Hoshi remained seated on top of her, calmly patting her back as she laid face down into a pillow she had procured, surrounded by a veritable ocean of eaten fruit shells.

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

Okay, maybe Hoshi would be a good influence on Amea. That was the thought that crossed Evelyn’s mind as she watched the woman crumble under the Shinri’s wide-eyed look. She shook her head slightly, trying her best to not laugh. Oh, Evelyn had been on the receiving end of that look before, it was what led to her ‘allowing’ Hoshi to eat so much fruit.

The little guy knew what cards he had, and how to play them correctly.

“General rule is nothing overtly violent, action films and such are fine, just no blood ‘n’ gore, you get what I mean.” Evelyn feigned thinking for a moment, scratching a finger against her chin. “Oh, and no horror films. The little guy is terrified of them.” She looked over to see Hoshi pouting, arms crossed against his small chest.

Evelyn couldn’t help but laugh a bit at that.

She departed a short while later, after Amea had filled her in on some basic information. Naming two other groups that seemingly worked as fronts for the Corefront Mob. Evelyn agreed with her initial assessment that neither would be too much of a threat, not compared to the one controlling them both.

Evelyn had made her way to ‘Club Fantasy’ with little issue, but with plenty of stares along the way. It was inevitable given the obvious rifle on her back, along with the overall look that screamed ‘I’m a Bounty Hunter’. The club was nowhere near as lively as it no doubt was late at night, but it had it’s lurking patrons and workers.

She used the bounty hunter facade to get where she needed, but using it vaguely. You a bounty hunter, or something? Something like that, yeah.

It was simple enough, no one really wanted to question someone so armed, and looking for information on a hit. Her golden goose of information came in the form of a drunk patron. She had to pay for a few drinks to loosen his lips some more, but he was a font of information in the end. Of course, she couldn’t just rely on some drunken ramblings, so she did some further digging in a local database to fact check the names.

Returning to the ship, Evelyn was greeted by the sight of slumbering Amea on the couch. Whatever movie they had been watching had long since ended, and Hoshi was focused on calmly patting the woman’s back. The Shinri had unknowingly been using the Force to help soothe Amea’s slumber.

“So who ate the most here, you or Amea?” Hoshi just gave her a wide cheeky smile in response. “Yeah, I thought so.” Evelyn chuckled quietly, shaking her head. “How long has she been sleeping?” Hoshi thought about it for a few moments, before just giving her a thumbs up. The Echani took that as a decent amount of hours. “Good, see if you can wake her up. I’m going to go and get a drink.”

As Evelyn disappeared into the kitchen, Hoshi hopped down from Amea’s back, his paws causing a soft thud as he landed. The Shinri began to gently push against Amea’s arm, trying to wake her.

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

The sudden lack of weight upon her body caused Amea to stir for a moment. A soft groan rumbled from the sleeping beauty as she enjoyed what felt like a well-deserved moment of rest for a while longer. It hadn’t occurred to her that she should have questioned this sense of safety and comfort yet. It was most likely false, it was a way to get under her skin and tear out her throat from within. Or was it? There was always a danger associated with letting people in close and letting people get to know you. And yet where her survival instincts usually would have gotten the better of her, Amea had instead chosen to fall into a deeper slumber despite Hoshi’s attempts to prod her awake.

The attempts kept coming and another groan and whine called into the seeming night before something far more frustrated than the first one slowly rumbled up. Amea tossed herself around to face away from the white little creature who upon defeat glanced over at his partner in crime with a gentle shrug. He had tried, and it had not worked.

He poked Amea yet again and the woman shuffled in her sleep. He applied more force and was met with another mumble. Eventually Hoshi figured that enough was enough and grabbed Amea by the shoulder to give it a firm shake which finally seemed to do it.

The groan turned into a gasp as Amea sat upright, groggy and confused for a moment.

“I’m up!” She exclaimed before she began to rub at her eyes. “What is it, Hoshi? I was out for like a minute at most.”

The creature rolled his eyes over towards Evelyn.

“Snowbird’ll be back in like an hour,” She groaned and collapsed back into the couch again. “Five more minutes.”

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

Even the sound of the kettle going hadn’t stirred Amea it seemed. That fact surprised Evelyn, until she remembered Hoshi had been helping her sleep. She had always wondered how consciously the Shinri was with his usage of the Force. Personally, she couldn’t feel it given her lack of a connection, but she was convinced Hoshi used it when sleeping.

During those months in between, he had become an unknowning aid in helping Evelyn move on from the deaths of her former crew.

No longer haunted by the same repeated nightmares.

Having removed her hat and coat once more, Evelyn departed the kitchen and over to where Amea was still sleeping away, albeit having shifted two positions since the Echani had returned.

She glanced over at Hoshi. No luck? He just rolled his eyes in response.

Evelyn bit down on her lip to stifle her laugh, conflicted in letting Amea have those extra minutes or not. Ultimately though, time wasn’t going to be on their side forever.

“I don’t know Hoshi, should we give sleeping beauty her extra five minutes?” She spoke with mirth clear in her tone, placing a fresh mug of caf on the table before Amea. Evelyn walked around and took a seat in the matching single chair just to the right of the couch.

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

Still, there was an undeniable calm in here. Amea let in a deep breath as she tried her best to fall asleep again to no avail. There was a moment when the smell of caf began to fill her nostrils that an even more confused look spread across her face, but it quickly disappeared as Evelyn made her presence known. Amea sat up and propped herself up with her forehead resting firmly in the palm of her hand as she slowly swayed from side to side to find her balance again.

“I’m awake.” She muttered as her elbow finally found her knee. “Even if just barely.”

Her eyes set upon the cup, the free hand extending towards it to let it drift with a gentle hover into the grasp of her hands. A casual application of the force, but a necessity for her own damned survival - or so it felt like. The warm liquid found her lips and Amea felt her spirit jolt awake. Not from the contents within the drink as much as because, well, the drink was still incredibly warm.

She played it cool though. The widened eyes gave away her shock and pain, but the careless shrug most certainly tried to play that off as nothing had happened.

“What did you find?” Amea asked as the cup found the table again. “Are we- I… Am I screwed?”

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

She had only just brought the cup up to her lips, when Evelyn caught sight of Amea’s action. A very casual use of the Force to levitate her own caf into her hand. The Echani’s eyes were wide for a moment, before she shook it off as nothing more than surprise.

Amea had used the Force in front of her before, multiple times during their time at Willowdale. The speed in which she moved towards the attackers, then the utter disassemblement of the boss’ weapon.

But there was something...oddly charming about using it for such a simple thing. Handy too for those lazy weekends

“I’m hopeful for a positive outcome, but I’ve enough sense to not fully believe that right off the bat.” Evelyn took a sip of her caf, letting the warmth settle before she resumed. “I found a charming man at the club, loosened his lips some more after buying him a few rounds.” It had been an...entertaining time, with her trying to draw as much information out as possible, and not wanting to punch him every time he tried hitting on her. “The Corefront Mob is made up of multiple families, there’s the Head Family of course, but there’s also minor ones they’ve brought under their wing over the years. And they’ve got a pretty big wingspan.” Evelyn tried to think of the different minor family names, but she couldn’t recall them all. Or confident say her source named them properly to begin with.

Not that any of them mattered in what they were specifically after.

“Point being is that they’re a large empire, so unless the Boss wants to throw that all away for this, our chances are much higher.” Evelyn was confident in that fact, remembering the stories her grandma had told her, about the chaos that ensued when the family wanted to dissolve everything.

“Dominic Vane is the current Head of the family, and he has two siblings. A younger sister called Vivienne, and this is the best bit, an older brother called Orion.” That was contradictory to the general process of how mob families functioned. It was always the eldest child that took over the family. “So I looked into it, did some research. Turns out Orion enlisted into an army when he became of age, and their father passed away while he was still fighting. Therefore his younger brother, Dominic, took the reins and never let them go even after his older brother’s return.”

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

That look, Amea was familiar with that look. Her eyes widened in response as well, but before she could utter her apology for such a blatant display she was cut off by what Evelyn had come to find. Younger brothers in seats of power, an older brother that lost his chance due to his service in the army. A wicked grin spread on Amea’s lips as she realized the potential of this dirty little secret, the perfect little lie to spin in order to turn this back in her favor.

“So, I acted on the orders of the head's older brother.” Amea said with a newfound lease of life in her voice. “No questions asked, it was to be made to seem like an accident, only I did it a little too well. All we need is his account details and we can forge all the evidence we need. Scrape a little off the top of his credit stacks…”

Now the true Amea would be allowed to surface again, the almost impossibly stubborn one that didn’t stop until her job was done. She rose out of the couch and slowly began to pace, each step after the other to take her in the right direction.

“We don’t even need to access his home to get that.” Amea glanced around looking for any form of terminal hooked up to the ‘net. All she needed was the access port, a glance into who was who in the area as well as a read on the name. “They’ll be trying to pass their business off as legit, blend truth into their lies and form a half-truth.”

She began to scan the net for the name and there it was. Orion Vane, a legitimate businessman. Amea chuckled and proceeded to write the address down.

“I’m a mobster, what are some of my favorite things?” Amea asked and turned back towards Evelyn. “My family.” She turned back around again towards the screen. “Vane Family one-two-three.”

She put it in as she spoke, and with it they were met by the green screen of success. Amea blinked in surprise mixed with horror at the sight.

“You’d think someone of their stature would be more concerned with security fundamentals.” She scoffed and shook her head in disgust before she proceeded to get started on the forgery. “We’re practically stealing candy from a baby.”

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

In the span of what felt like a literal blink, Amea had jumped from the couch and was talking a mile a minute. Evelyn was able to follow it, and it brought a smile to her face. So this was the real Amea? The one who wasn’t held down by the weight of paranoia. Oh, she was certain it was there but it was presently being overshadowed with action, with a belief that Amea could turn this around to her benefit.

And they would, Evelyn was going to make sure of that.

There were little details Amea would find as she looked through Orion Vane’s account. He had a fairly substantial income, from a few businesses he had that were funneling into the public facing company. But the records of those funds fluctuated. At one point a large sum would just disappear, then remain like that for a period of time, until a sudden uptick of credits were introduced. It was a repeated behaviour, one that was immediately recognisable.

That of a gambling addict.

A juicer detail was that Orion had an ‘allowance’ for a lack of a better word, from the family account. He had zero direct access to those funds, and was limited. And all those credits were quickly swept away through gambling.

Then there was the slightest detail, a recent transaction.

From one Samson Vane, Dominic’s son. He had seemingly borrowed money from his nephew, a short time before his untimely death.

“Given what I’ve heard about the brother, I’m not too shocked by that. He’s grown careless over the years.” Evelyn took a sip of her caf, glancing over to see Hoshi jump up onto the couch and curled up on the spot Amea had left. “We should use that as back up, or evidence more so. I actually want to go and speak with Orion Vane, see if we can incriminate him further.”

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

A deep, almost taunting chuckle echoed against the screen as Amea stared herself in the eyes in its reflection, the pale whites of her teeth exposed as she skimmed over the man’s life in text form. An addiction to gambling, a recent loan from the victim, this man was just a gift that kept on giving. As Evelyn continued to talk Amea continued to run over the details of his account.

That wicked grin still lingered on Amea’s lips by the time she finally turned around to face Evelyn. Teeth continued to be exposed as it grew more and more lopsided with greater measures of devilish satisfaction.

“No, no. I’d say it’s Plan A.” Amea said before a quick, sharp inhale forced her to laugh yet again. “Plan B is that we reshuffle the data, make it seem like the kid was the gambler.”

This was no longer about survival, it was about revenge and righteous vengeance for the memories they had dragged to the surface. Amea’s eyes burned bright, the malicious intent all the more evident as she returned to the data.

“First we squeeze that sorry sap for every single piece we can get out of him, and after that…” Her head bobbed up and down in approval of her own scheme. “... After that, he either has to admit to the crime of having hired me, or he has to admit to the fact that he gambled away the family’s money. Either way he must come clean or he has to live with a guilty conscience for having his nephew murdered. And we will still hold all the cards.”

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

An eyebrow raised as Evelyn watched the level of arguable excitement and glee increased in Amea’s voice and actions. It took the Echani by surprise in just how quickly the switch was flipped, but then the realization struck her. She was getting a first hand look at that Amea.

The one who found a list of everyone involved in her memory wipe, tracking them down across the galaxy and killing every last one of them.

Evelyn took a sip of her caf.

“Amea, remind me to never get on your bad side, ever.” The Echani chuckled as she continued to watch the woman work. It was...oddly enjoyable to witness, seeing her enraptured in a line of work she enjoyed doing. It certainly wasn’t legal, but then when was that ever a frequent thing with their lifestyles. "And then we take the evidence to the man in charge, and paint such a lovely picture of his brother."

“Speaking of Plan A though, I’ve an idea to add some more atop this.” Evelyn placed her cup down onto the table, standing up from her chair. “We could manufacture an email from an anonymous source, someone Orion owes a lot of credits too. Vaguely suggesting ‘roughing up’ his nephew in order to have it wiped clean.” She walked up to Amea, but kept a fair distance to allow her to work. “Family is family, yes. But life, and fear of losing it tends to override even that.”

Everything she had heard about Orion Vane painted a picture of jealousy, a man who fell in a selfish state after coming back home to nothing. He had family, but not in the way he wanted. There was part of Evelyn that did feel guilty, she knew first hand the effects war can have on a person.

But she’d be damned if she let Amea continue fearing for her life over this.

“I might have something that'll help with our little talk with Orion, I’ll be right back.”

With that, Evelyn walked off and disappeared into her personal quarters.

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

For a split second, Amea felt a pang of guilt spike in her muscles and ache to her bone as if the excitement of having a chance to truly devastate someone had cracked through her outer shell. She wanted to apologize, but the moment it got all the more clear that Evelyn didn’t care, the feeling disappeared, instead replaced by something warmer. Appreciation for the lack of judgment for one, something else that was far harder to explain on the other. A feeling of relief, and yet a worry for what that meant. She pushed it away and returned to the mailing list before her.

“Oh.” Amea grinned. “Oh, that’s brilliant, Snowbird.”

“We flip the card before they have a chance to truly, truly act upon all of this.” She nodded approvingly, eyes glancing over her shoulder as the Echani mentioned something that could help with their talk to Orion. “Oh?”

Amea stood up and took a seat on the desk as Evelyn disappeared.

What did she have in mind now?

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

It took several minutes until Evelyn finally returned from her quarters, and she looked no different. But as she walked closer to Amea, she’d start picking up something in the Force. Her Mechu-deru picked up on a new piece of technology nearby.

The source became blatantly apparent once the Echani stood in front of her. She had switched out her otherwise bog-standard contact lenses for identical ones, but instead were Holo-Recording Lenses.

“I’ll admit, these are probably the highest tech gadgets I have in my possession.” Evelyn chuckled sheepishly. “The gameplan in my head, as you mentioned before, is that we confront Orion with the accusation of gambling away family money, repeatedly. And that it would be ‘such a shame’ if he didn’t comply, else he’d be facing accusations of having his nephew killed. He’ll no doubt go for the former without hesitation when given the two options, but what if we record him?”

There was the slightest smirk at the corner of Evelyn’s lips. “And I’m sure you can work your fancy tech magic to piece together the recording, make the man himself confess to the murder.”

It was clear Evelyn hadn’t thought lightly on this situation, she had a plan in mind and this was only the beginning.

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

Amea picked the device up and held it in her hands. For the moment it was off, dead like a stone, but the second that Amea flicked that switch it seemed difficult to get it to stop. The little specks of light, visible only to the mind was right there before her like wisps programmed set on a collision course towards one of many components within the device. It was swallowed whole before a similar pulse was spat out in the other direction with more and more dots of static stored in the quiet of the central processing unit.

“You are,” Amea began and glanced at Evelyn. “So amazing.”

She put the device down on the terminal and went right back into the man’s schedule to remove any and all appointments he had for the day. Chairman’s meeting for one of his sideprojects? He wouldn’t be needing that, something more important had come up. Namely, absolutely nothing.

She sent the reminder to the man’s assistant who seemed confused by his action. Needless to say he sent an uncharacteristically compassionate note about it and told her to take the rest of the day off, something she gladly accepted.

“There.” Amea said and turned back towards Evelyn before she reached for her jacket and began to fling it over her shoulders. “Meeting set, if we hurry this will take no time at all.”

The recording device jumped up from the desk and straight into Amea’s hand.

“Shall we?”

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

Evelyn’s cheeks immediately burned red from the compliment. She was glad Amea was too focused on her work to direct any attention towards it. Oh, the Echani was certain she caught it, but the woman was on a mission and even a little teasing wasn’t going to get in the way of that.

It did dawn on Evelyn that she was putting a lot of trust in Amea with this. She was effectively giving her control over her eyes. Not in a literal sense, but the technomancer had the controls of when it recorded, meaning a mishap could do serious damage to them.

Why was it so easy to trust her?

That question had to wait, as it seemed Amea was ready to head off. Fortunately, Evelyn’s blush had fully disappeared by that point. “We shall.”

It was a choice to avoid any public transport, just on the off chance they got seen before they could even reach Orion’s location. Amea had already mapped out the routes they were taking, and after thirty minutes they had arrived at what appeared to be a processing factory.

“Ah, so it’s true then…” She glanced over at Amea. “This is one of the Corefront Mob’s businesses, a somewhat minor one at that. I’m guessing they gave Orion management duties to appease him.” The place was sparsely occupied, a light shift it seemed for the workers with a few guards patrolling around. “We’ll need to get up to the offices over there, that’ll be where our target is.”

Given they had already managed to navigate parts of the city without being caught, it didn’t take much effort for the pair to reach their destination. The offices were clear, and their path towards Orion Vane’s was right ahead of them.

“Alright, remember to activate the lens before we go in. We want to get every bit of his voice possible.”

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

“Got it. The voice.” Amea nodded and patted the device in her pocket. She pulled the Echani aside for a moment, her eyes glancing into the Echani's red eyes for little more than a second before falling into an awkward shuffle, her hand gently drifting out of the other woman's grip. “Don’t get caught off-guard over what I am about to do, okay?”

They both seemed to agree. Amea cleared her throat and pushed her hand to the door to open it. Partway through the doorway her stride changed into something more dignified, rigid almost like a lawyer on a mission. Because, well, that was exactly who she was after all. Hand behind her back she flicked the on-switch for the lenses to start the recording.

“Mister Vane,” Her voice was different, deeper, unmistakably imperial. “We need to tal-”

“Who in the thirty hells are you?!” The man exclaimed in shock, his feet finding the ground, his knuckle the desk. “Get the the f-”

“I am Keira Vern, the lawyer hired by your secretary to save your sorry skin.” Amea, or rather Keira, pushed towards the desk and placed her own knuckles against the top. “Unless you would like to explain why your gambling debts caused you to hire an assassin to murder your nephew, the future head of our very family.”

The look of surprise mixed with outrage that spread across Orion’s face wasn’t hard to read.

“I don’t even know what you are-”

“Oh, but you do, Orion Vane.” Keira pushed him down in his seat. “Ten thousand on sabacc, thirty on spinning a damn wheel. A loan granted to you by your nephew, right before he died. Does that seem like something you’d want the rest of the family to be aware of?”

“Now, unless you want to rot six feet under along with the rest of your mistakes. Speak. Take it from the top.”

 

[Evelyn Shaw]

The Echani knew this was it, they were enacting the first part of their plan. If this got screwed up, their chances of clearing Amea’s name would become a lot slimmer. But Evelyn was confident they’d accomplish what they needed with Orion. The man was not his brother, not as sharp and deadly, but still dangerous all the same.

Intimidation and exploitation were going to be the tools needed to get under the eldest Vane’s skin, and draw out what they needed.

Amea had a habit of catching the Echani off-guard the past day or so, but Evelyn knew she’d be able to keep a straight face despite whatever the woman had in mind for this. She gave Amea a nod and followed her into the office.

Internally, Evelyn was surprised at just how quick and easy Amea was able to slip into her role. Something that, thinking on it for a moment, became all the more obvious. Between how easy she could fall into paranoia, to how quickly her mood had shifted when their plan began to take shape.

She was once again reminded to never piss Amea off.

Evelyn stood by the door as the conversation began, keeping her back to it. She kept her eyes firmly glued on Orion’s face, ensuring her lenses got every bit of that side, along with his voice. It was impossible to tell anything from the distance she was standing. You’d have to be right up close to even notice the slightest change in Evelyn’s contacts.

“I…” Orion began to speak, his eyes shifting every which way to find something to change the subject. They very quickly landed on Evelyn. “Who the hell is she?!”

“Someone you should hope you never have to be concerned with.” Evelyn just stared the man down, crossing her arms. She would play the part of the bodyguard, which the assortment of weapons on her person certainly helped with that image. “Now, answer Miss Vern’s question.”

Amea Virou​

 

[Amea Virou]

Evelyn Shaw

“Yes, answer my questions, Mister Vane.” Amea doubled down. “You killed your own nephew, your own flesh and blood, and now you’re trying to snake your way out of it.”

“Some lawyer you are!” The man exclaimed. The pressure was getting to him, the beads of sweat forming at the top of his forehead told Amea that much. “What kind of blackmail is this?! I didn’t murder my nephew, some coked up dancer did!”

Amea exhaled a chuckle, the fire behind her eyes all the more evident as the man began to realize who she truly was. His jaw loosening, his eyes darting between his blackmailer and her associate as his finger slowly rose, his seat rolled back in terror.

“It- it was you!” His voice chimed up under the pressure. “You’re the woman that killed my nephew.”

“That’s an interesting theory you’ve got there, Orion.” Amea drawled as her voice seemed to grow deeper for each passing moment. Small hisses of air began to push from her lungs as the pattern began to set in to mirror how every word from the man’s mouth seemed to be something he had to force out of himself in order to say them in the first place. “But you should know better than to tell a lie. Mother taught you better than that.” The mimicry grew closer and the man stood still, petrified in sheer horror at the lengths she was going to. “Didn’t she, brother?”

And there Amea stood, the job done, her assimilation of his voice complete. Her fangs exposed with a wicked grin she leaned further into his desk and the man took a step back.

“I always knew it was going to end like this.” Amea said and posed as Orion. “Little brat knew what he was doing when he gave me that money, he always knew how it would make me look if the rest of the family found out.”

The real Orion remained in place even now.

“Heir to a fortune that had never been his, or my bastard brother’s to begin with. I was owed that ticket, I was the one who was supposed to take over and they all took it from me. But if there is one thing I learned from the army…” Amea paused for dramatic effect. “It’s that when you have a problem, you must treat it like the enemy. And when you meet an enemy…”

“... You must crush it before it’s too late.”