Biting the Big Apple IC

[industrious]

When Manhattan vanishes, they feel the effects in different ways.

Solomon feels its loss as a great, albeit welcome emptiness, as gang wars suddenly cease to have ever been. The War on Drugs and the War on Crime diminish as a great target for both programs is neatly sliced from existence. Decades of criminal violence, of mafia dons, police crackdowns and overreactions, of corporate warfare...none of it disturbs the Pawn anymore.

Kate spins, dizzy, as if the floor has risen up to catch her., The great heights of New York City, the skyscrapers and the skylines, the wrought iron bridges, have been erased, replaced by wood and field and meadow. The great iron towers of the city had been a symbol of human achievement, of the power and innovation of man, iconic. Now they are gone, and something that soared within Kate falls silent.

Anya hears the event as a great silence of voice, as the slick city men who preyed upon newcomers earnest to make a new living no longer exist to ply their trade. Wall Street is gone and the hangers-on and charlatans of the financial world with it along with honest traders and bankers. The crime families are gone, and with them, their arcane practices designed to lure and trick men into perpetual debt. Street performers, dressed up as famous men and monuments, scaring and impressing tourists without motion have faded. The lights on Broadway never were, for what are plays but a trick of fiction accepted by an eager audience?

As you reside in your Chancel, you realize that New York City is gone.

What do you do?

[DeafnotDumb]

It's like finding room to breathe before realizing that what you were breathing was sewage. Solomon lights a cigarette to rid the taste and sucks in the smoke, enjoying the rush of nicotine. He could probably not need it, but it was more... mortal to do so. Trailing smoke, he went off in search of... Anya, he decided. Little Anya would do, with her trickery and her places full of happenings. If she weren't there, she'd likely come once she'd felt this. Hopefully 'fore the empty suit parade started up again, drawing everybody into the show...

Jonesy, back from the war, had been from Manhattan when there was a Manhattan to be from. So'd a number of people. Rather than think on such things, Solomon sorted through his library of songs. Something of a lament for the disappeared island, something for walkin' through this strange place - ah, yes -

"Burn the bridge/Bet the store/Baby's not coming home no more/Not for the life of me!" Clapping his hands and kicking what was probably a dustbin in order to start the tune, Solomon danced past mannequins and debris with a body he'd never had even when he was a young man. "A life that's gotta be more than a one light town/Where the light is always red/Gotta be more than an old ghost town/Where the ghost ain't even dead..."

A spectral shape somewhere in the labyrinth stopped at this. Solomon shrugged an apology in its direction and waltzed on."Clap your hands, just because/Where I am ain't where I was-"

Maybe if he was lucky, somebody would pick his wallet.

[Crinias]

It was in the middle of reading Journey to the West that Anya felt it.

The silence runs like a cold wind through her, and for a moment she is stunned. For an instant that feels like a week and a bit more she is at a loss. New York, gone? An irreplaceable center of human culture is suddenly no more? No more Broadway? No King Kong, probably, along with another hundred stories set, written on or influenced by such a great city. But these are just superficial reasons for Anya’s shock. They’re not entirely why she’s so surprised, or perhaps upset.

The Godfather is gone. One of her inspirations for originally searching freedom is no more. “A man that doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man”, it was this line that made Anya realize that her father didn't particularly care for her, and that staying where she was would not lead her to happiness.

"Well then, we can’t just let this be, can we?"

Anya closes her book, pockets it inside her Handkerchief, and begins to head in the general direction of her sister’s tower. Despite liking her brother very much, Anya would easily agree that of her two siblings her sister is much more dependable than her brother.

First it’s just a walk, then a skip, a sprint, and then all of a sudden she’s a blur, running and jumping through the maze, evading barbed wires and any bystanders like a gust of wind.
She’s certainly not the only one to have lost something. The rest of her family, and likely some members of their society, would soon react and begin to Do Something. It might pay off to get an early start and get on top of things. Her sister would know what to do, where to start.
----
Treasure 4 miracle: Store book inside Handkerchief.
Then, Anya uses her gift, Inhuman Swiftness, to run to Kate’s tower, at Aspect 5 velocity.

[The_Snark]

In a faraway land where the sun never shows her face, there is a tower. There are a lot of towers there, actually, a whole sprawling forest of spines and buttresses and soaring crenelations clawing hungrily at the sky; but we're only concerned with the one.

There are no doors, the theory being that if you can't find a way around that, you don't have any business being here and probably aren't all that important anyway. There is a window, though, and if a bird passed by at that moment—not that there are any birds living here—it would see a woman staggering ungracefully against a table.

Profanity stains the air, thick and Slavic, the dialect some ancestor of Russian that nobody remembers anymore. A fitting memorial. A little too fitting, in fact; Kate switches to English to vent her feelings some more.

"Okay," she says to the air when she's through. "Better."

But of course things aren't any better. New York is still gone. How did this happen so suddenly? Somebody's got to know something. You don't pull off something this big without laying groundwork. Intention ripples out like a leviathan's wake, hinting at the presence underneath. But if anyone saw this coming, they didn't bother to tell Kate Bessmertny.

The first step is to turn on the radio and the television downstairs, both attuned to Earthly news stations. There won't be any story about a city vanishing, gives Prosaic Earth's insistence on pretending that nothing is wrong, but there might be something. Little clues. The second step is to get out her cellphone.

"Anya, darling. Where are you?"

[Crinias]

Anya answers on the first ring.
"Funny you should ask, dear sister, I was just coming over to meet you. I should be arriving shortly. I haven't heard of our brother though, we should probably give him a call..."

Eventually Anya nears the forest of towers, and the singular, great tower that is her sister's home comes into view.

"Also, you might want to clear the space next to the window, I'm about to make a dynamic entry."

Anya cannot actually jump that high... then again, she doesn't need to.

As she nears the tower (from the side from which its only window is visible), she slows down and calls upon the mystical link between her and, unfortunately, her butler. Anya is not startled when Luca appears right behind her, as though he'd always been there, nor does he say a word. He moves so that he is directly in-between Anya and the tower.

Then, it simply happens. Anya takes up a runner's stance, both hands in the ground, body correctly positioned; Luca just stands there watching her with both arms firmly to his sides.

As though a shot has been heard, Anya suddenly sprints towards Luca. When she is only a few feet away from him she leaps up a meter in the air, spins and lands feet first on Luca's hands.

Less than a second afterwards Anya is being propelled at high velocities directly towards the window. She spins gracefully through the air for a second or two, with no fear in her body, then suddenly enters through the window, sticking the landing.

"Hey."
--------
Combining Treasure 4 so Luca reaches her and Treasure 6, Weaving Destiny: "My butler launches me safely into my sister's tower, and I stick the landing."
Within our Chancel we get a 3-MP discount on miracles, so this costs nothing.

[industrious]

Kate

The television flickers to life, displaying the evening news.

"...the mayor has come down strongly on the protesters, sending in police in full riot gear. Public opinion of Jeweler's Row is at its lowest point in three years. We now go live to our panel discussion of..."

Some things, it seemed, couldn't be destroyed so easily. Manhattan was gone. Wall Street had merely moved elsewhere. Philadelphia, in this case.

Solomon

As he meanders through the Chancel, a familiar figure steps through the fog.

"Solomon?"

Kate, the eldest of the Famila, scrubs at her temples, a pair of ski goggles in the way. She's dressed for winter, complete with fur-lined hood.

"Something's gone wrong. We need to get Anya. Talk at my tower?"

[DeafnotDumb]

Solomon

"As you wish, Il' sis." Solomon stops his whistling and replies with a smile, pleased to see his - as he insists on calling her - little sister about. "I was headin' to fetch her myself, but I bow to the wishes of the not-actually-elder." He tips his hat in a half serious, half smirking display of respect.

The tower was a place to stay, though not with the life he enjoyed in Anya's part of the channel. It would just require a little change of direction. Bunching his muscles, he started to move with a speed that he'd never had even as a young man, before age and war wounds wore him down near to dust. To be young again, with the wisdom of age! Well, debatably.

"I was born in a cross fire hurricane/ and howled at my ma in the driving rain-" New music, white music stolen from the black players, but fine music none the less.

Speeding from place to place, leaving aftershocks with each step, reveling in the joy as the channel blurred into one single mess. No matter how high you jump there's true escape from the labyrinth, but you can pretend at the height of your leap that you're almost free. The momentum gathers and gathers, until the tower is in sight.

At this rate, one leap is enough to make it up to the window of the tower and almost crash into Anya standing right there. Thankfully, a foot boost off the railing sends him just over her and into a graceful landing that is, frankly, showy. He settles into a lounge against the wall, flicking his hat up so he can see.

"Hey, Rapunzel." He says, as way of greeting. "No need t'let down your hair. Hear there's a city partly missin'?"

[industrious]

"Kate"

"Yes."

There are two Kates in the room now, one by the window, the other near the television. The one in ski goggles removes them, revealing black eyes dotted with the light of dying stars, a quiet smile on her lips.

"What a nice little tower you have here, Ekaterin. I wish I could complement the Chancel itself, but I do hate lying."

Slowly, she raises her hands, palms facing outward and away from her body. The Excrucian isn't making any hostile moves.

[DeafnotDumb]

Solomon

Solomon looks from Kate to not-Kate until he figures that he's established enough of a beat to launch into his next statement. "Y'know, that interaction strikes me as a little narcissistic." He remarks in an aside to Anya, taking out the cigarette for her benefit. "So, why you here an' why, 'part from a holding to the principles of nonviolence, should I not hit you?" He smiles and leans back flippantly in a manner that coincidentally happens to put him nearer the escape route of the window.

[industrious]

"Kate"

"She" looks at Solomon again, and snickers.

"This is the Power of War? This little minstrel? Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Archfleur had such a fire in her, such spirit, such passion for what drove her. Hit me, then, Power of War. Strike the first blow against someone who comes in peace."

"Kate" is a perfect reconstruction of the older Power, every tone and infliction perfectly mimicked, save for the eyes. It was nearly impossible for an Excrucian to hide their eyes.

"And believe it or not, little minstrel...I've come to help. For a price."


"Kate" is referencing minstrel shows (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minstrel_show) by calling him that.

[DeafnotDumb]

Solomon

Solomon smiles placidly at the insult. What makes it different from all the others he's endured over the years? This person, at least, dislikes him for who he is rather than a much more superficial reason.


Accepting the damage. A level 1 affliction accounts for a surface wound, correct?

[Crinias]

Anya crosses her arms and thinks. She has never personally met an Excrucian, so she's on her guard. For now, acting rashly would be bad.

It must be confident enough in its power to appear before an entire Familia in its own Chancel. That it entered with no one noticing, and that he managed to deceive Solomon is further proof of this. (Actually, it just means that our dear brother didn't think anything suspicious about "Kate" wearing full-on winter clothes)
If worse comes to worse we can probably overpower him.

But it never hurts to have some insurance.

Treasure 4 miracle, Getting some help: "My butler quickly informs our Imperator that we have an unwanted guest".

In the meantime, she mirrors "Kate's" smirk and speaks as well.

"Surely you did not come here to trade insults, nameless sir or madam? What is your purpose for appearing in such a sudden, yet obvious manner? Due to your timing, you must be behind, or at least related to, the disappearance of Manhattan. If you have not come here to fight, as you say, then speak your business."

[The_Snark]

"Solya dear, you really should warn me when you're bringing guests - though under the circumstances I suppose I'll have to forgive you."

The real Kate isn't dressed for winter; she looks more like she's dressed for an afternoon cocktail party, making the compact little pistol in her right hand look a bit incongruous. She smiles pleasantly at her doppelganger, although with Kate "pleasant" is never more than half a step away from "predatory."

"Always charmed to meet such a lovely stranger. Normally I'd offer coffee or tea before getting down to business, but under the circumstances I think we'd like explanations first."

[industrious]

"Kate"

"Kate" huffs in anger, folding her arms under her chest.

"Stranger? Nameless? I'm...I'm insulted, Ekaterin."

In a flash step, her doppelganger is behind Kate, arm encircled around her waist, her chin against the Noble's shoulder.

"Her" chin quickly becomes "his" chin, though, thickening out with muscle. The arm shift and change as well, though they grow little thicker than Kate's own. Features rearrange themselves, becoming youthful, almost innocent and guileless, while Kate's long black hair turns the color of wheat, shortening and becoming casually unkempt. The winter garb dissolves, replaced with a simple peasant's outfit, anachronistic and incongruous with the rest of the Chancel.

Kate knows that if she looks at him, she will want to see blue eyes, beautiful and trusting; she will imagine them just as everyone imagines them, a final touch on the canvas of the newly formed body. She will want to see clear blue eyes, but the eyes of an Excrucian are always the same. Solid black, and dotted with pinpricks of light, stars faded before their time.

"As I said before," comes an all-too familiar voice, just behind her left ear. "I'm willing to help, for a price. And you may call me...Ivan."

[The_Snark]

"Oh, it's you."

Kate leans back into him, and with her free hand reaches up to... grab a fistful of hay-blond hair. "You're insulted? You, Ivan? You never call, you never write, I haven't so much as seen you since 1991, and now you think you can just waltz in here and I'll fall into your arms. Tch. Typical."

She turns and pulls him into a kiss, lips pressed hungrily against his.

In case of resistance, Kate has up to Aspect 6 behind this action.

[Crinias]

Anya looks away regardless of her sister's action's result.
I mean honestly, an Aspect 6 kiss? Oh, the horror, the humanity, the excrucianity!

On second thought, informing our Imperator of a problem we might not be able to solve, or worse, a problem that we COULD solve, is a terrible idea. Anya opens up a channel of communication between her and Luca, who is probably on his way to inform our Lord of our guest.
Cancel that, our guest has been identified.

Assuming that Ivan is afterwards able to speak:
"You say you wish to help... I feel very conflicted right now. A part of me wants to vehemently communicate my refusal; another is tempting me to say, sure, why not. But right now, due to the current circumstance of New York suddenly not existing, I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in what you have to say.

What sort of help? Information, probably?"


So far all I've said is technically true and I have not yet lied... But if he doesn't realize that I simply do not trust him (and I never will, out of common sense), I will be severely disappointed.

[industrious]

Ivan

He tries to resist, of course. But she is stronger than him, faster than him-has always been stronger and faster than him. Her husband is dangerous because of his mind, not his body.

He staggers back, collapses on Kate's couch, breathing shallowly. Blood trickles out from his mouth, dripping onto the fabric and the floor.

"Was...that...really necessary...my...wife?"

He's alive, of course. If her kissing him (or other such things) was all it took to rid the world of this Deceiver, he'd have been dead many, many times over.

"I...forgive...you..."

He shifts back into Kate's form, still dripping blood, and gestures at the nearby wall. A message carves itself into the iron.

I will give you information. I will give you the name of the one who did this, and I will escort you to them. I will fight beside you, and together, we cannot be defeated. Please. Let me help you.

Ivan then becomes still, unconscious.


Serious Wound: Heavy Metal Poisoning.

Kate knows differently, having ventured with him before. When he helped defeat the Old Tzar, he ended up with half of the Imperator's Estates (no, she can't remember which ones).

[DeafnotDumb]

Solomon

"Huh." Solomon goes over to the body and prods it with the tip of his foot. When that's done, he turns to Kate. "Seems like a fine offer. Any idea what the catch's gonna be?"

[The_Snark]

Kate watches her husband fall with an indulgent smile, which turns to annoyance as he slumps onto the couch. Bloodstains are such a pain to get out of the fabric.

"The catch is the same as the offer, brother of mine. When you let my husband help you, you give him a handle he can use to weave you into one of his stories. My guess is he's sincere, but give him half a chance and he'll try and turn it into the tale of dashing Prince Ivan and his three boon companions, out to avenge the death of his homeland! Or some s*** like that. And you can be sure he'll come out of it with half the kingdom and the princess's hand in marriage, metaphorically speaking. He always does."

She sighs. "Really, if he'd been wearing his own face when he first came in, I'd probably have just shot him. Much simpler that way. I suppose it's not too late for that..."

[DeafnotDumb]

Solomon

"Shooting him again won't do much for the stopping of blood creeping into your carpets. Reverse, truth." Solomon opinions, and then stops to think."Don't suppose we could talecraft his story into something less suited for him? A farce 'bout a man and his much more competent companions? He'd have the edge if we fight him that way, though...thoughts, Anya?"

[Crinias]

Anya takes out a 10-ft. pole from her Handkerchief and from a cautious distance begins to prod Ivan. She examines his appearance and furrows her brow.

Then, she puts it back, looks upwards as though in thought, and takes a deep breath.

"Speaking in my full authority as Power of Trickery (that is to say, not much), he clearly stands to gain something from this no matter what happens. It's typical of people like us, all plans should have contingencies of some sort. He's combined this principle of deception with one of negotiation: the best sort of deal is one where all parties win something.

Without meaning to be rude to our sister, even letting him get this close to us, only for us to reject him, is enough to move him a step closer to whatever his plans are. People depend on their relations to one another, and that extends to Noble society...

If he continually comes around here, even if he doesn't do anything inconvenient or harmful to us, it will eventually lead to trouble. Trouble that we can handle and that has probably been handled by our sister several times, but still trouble. "

Anya folds her arms, closing her eyes.

"Even if he's telling the truth, many things could go wrong. We might meet up with other Nobles, who might misinterpret this situation.

I doubt it'd be a straightforward trap like an ambush. More likely, something like what our sister suggests will happen.

I suppose I could try to convince him to not screw us over by lying really well. But against a Deceiver... I'm not sure it would stick. I don't think divinations will work so well, either... "

For the sake of convenience, assume that whenever Anya 'takes out' something, it's from her Handkerchief. Saying it all the time is a bit annoying.

[The_Snark]

Kate shakes her head at Solomon on her way out of the room - "You could, but I don't think it would stop him; half his stories end up like that anyway. Ever read about Ivan the Fool?"

Her voice floats back along through the iron corridors. "We know he's trouble. The question is whether it's worth the risk. If he really does know something about what happened to New York, maybe. But we haven't even tried looking for it ourselves" - at this point she returns, carrying a red towel - "and for all we know there's a glowing neon sign where Manhattan used to be, pointing to the culprit."

She wipes some of the blood off and places the towel beneath Ivan's head, then stands back to look at him critically, shaking her head. "I suppose I can never complain that life with you is boring, husband of mine."

[DeafnotDumb]

Solomon

"Problem I sees is that we're tangled up in his story already." Solomon says, flicking one cigarette out the window and lighting another. "Jus' by coming here he did that, right? Especially with that Long Goodnight you planted on him. Whatever we do, he's involved, so might as well try to make it a tale we win, much as possible. Smoke?" He proffers the packet, and after a moment's consideration reaches down to place a jaunty cigarette at the edge of Ivan's mouth.

[Crinias]

"We may as well start looking for clues in other places."

Anya takes one of Solomon's cigarettes, glances at Kate's TV for a moment, and begins to take out chairs, a table, a laptop and a refrigerator, unlit cigarette in mouth. She sets them up or turns them on while speaking.

"Clearly some events or things of importance didn't so much disappear so much as happen elsewhere. So let's start off by searching those and then work our way up. If we don't find much we can just go check with other Powers and compare notes. I wonder how Cities is holding up, I've never met them."

Midway through the procedure Anya lights up her cigarette with a lighter. Then, she opens up her laptop, goes online and begins collecting all relevant information about things which once existed in or around New York, including but not limited to: looking up a map and finding out what exactly happened to the space where it once was, the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street (now Jeweler's Row), a large quantity of fiction set in New York or that reference it in some way (King Kong, Breakfast at Tiffany's, the Great Gatsby, the Godfather, most disaster movies), and anything else she'd find relevant.

"When Ivan wakes up we can maybe have some small talk, drink a bit, interrogate him at depth, that sort of thing."

[The_Snark]

"Please." Kate accepts the cigarette, lights it by scratching a fingernail along the wall and catching the spark.

"I can't help but think that the most sensible thing to do would be to dump him on the edge of the Chancel with a polite note saying ' no thank-you.' No grievance, no opening, nothing for him to work with."

"But I don't suppose we're going to do that. Just so you know the rules: my husband likes morality tales. Betray or sabotage him, and he'll find a way to turn it on you. Let him help you, and you'll find yourself helping him in turn. Sometimes it works the other way round too, but I wouldn't count on it."

She seats herself on the arm of the couch, near Ivan's head, and starts paging through an address book.

[industrious]

Ivan

The cigarette smolders in the Excrucian's lips, and Kate's husband rises to a sitting position.

"A kiss from a lover to make him sleep. A cigarette from a stranger to make him wake. Backwards-definitely backwards-but I can work with it. And if my wife feels that she doesn't need my help, she can regret not asking later. "

He bows to the Familia, then, and turns to leave through the window. Shortly before doing so, he places a business card upon the ledge.

"A kindness for a kindness, minstrel. A starting point-or an ending. In this modern world, 'Once upon a time' just doesn't happen anymore, does it?"

Ivan jumps from the tower, and vanishes from sight.


The note reads Старый царь.

As Nobilis, languages are no barrier to comprehension, of course. In English, it reads Old Czar


Anya

Most of the works she finds are either non-existent or altered, with various cities placed in New York's stead.

The area that once contained New York, it seems, is now an Indian reservation. Or rather, had never been colonized since a few hours ago., as none of the original American colonists had apparently wanted the land.

[DeafnotDumb]

Solomon

"See? We all in the story now." Solomon mutters through his cigarette. "And if I'm reading it right I'm the 'minstrel' sidekick. Maybe I should cover m'face with black paint just to keep the tradition."

He takes the cigarette and stubs it out on his hand, wincing, but the action seems to take most of the anger with it and the wound closes up a few moments later with the whiff of cordite. "Figure out how to react to that later. What you got girls, with your computers?" Despite being much younger that Kate by any reckoning but his, Solomon was significantly more technophobic, perhaps because he was older when he was elevated. You could take an old man out of the 20th century, but some of the 20th century stayed with the man.

[Crinias]

Anya watches Ivan leave, and briefly massages her temples.

Just how exactly do you unmake a city so it never was? If you eliminate the possibility of the city existing in the first place, or even the land being settled upon, that would most definitely work. This seems a likely possibility.

Anya begins searching more specifically. New York had originally been one of the Thirteen Colonies, so she should have searched that in the first place, as the logical beginning of the history of New York. So she changes her search to specify the colonies, and most importantly, the reason they didn't want the colony. As an aside, she checks the current status of the United States flag, counting the number of stars and stripes.

"Apparently, the land where New York used to be was never wanted by the original colonists (for reasons I am currently searching), so it is now an Indian reservation..."

Damn it all to Hell. Anya opens the fridge, takes out a glass and pours herself some cold water. She continues to massage her temples. She sighs deeply, mourning what is lost. She recalls Ivan's words. A kindness for a kindness? Did he seriously expect that we could enter an alliance so suddenly? Well, maybe not so suddenly considering Kate...

She could just picture it, them drinking tea casually, exchanging gifts and information in the name of mutual interests, with no ulterior motives whatsoe - no wait who is she kidding, she can't picture it at all. Putting your trust in someone and having it genuinely reciprocated sounds like a great thing, but who would even consider giving a Deceiver a gift and expect something nice to happen, and not blow up in their face afterwards, metaphorically or not?

She stops massaging her temples. Wait, there's something about this. She feels there might be something important about this. There's something of Trickery in this. Ivan's a Deceiver, it'd be strange if he wasn't plotting something, right? But... Trickery is almost entirely about subverting expectations and doing the unexpected to deceive others.

Maybe that's what she's missing? In the time since she became a Noble, just about everyone Anya's known has naturally distrusted her, and for good reason, really - who would trust Trickery? She doesn't blame people, either, but it makes it hard to deceive someone if they think you might attempt something. The same thing happened with her Lord: it was blind paranoia and distrust which made her lose that poker game.

She's read about this, in a book, in a movie, in a thousand stories. Karma states that all actions have consequences, that divisibility is an illusion, and that one is all. People aren't just individuals, they're part of the universe (she supposes this applies even more to Nobles). By hurting the universe, you are also hurting yourself. That could part of it, really. Maybe Ivan is not lying, maybe being honest is a great policy for deceiving others, or making them deceive themselves.

But then again, Excrucians aren't exactly part of Creation, are they? Or does the universe in this metaphor include the Lands Outside Creation? Huh. Suddenly things got interesting.

Perhaps this line of thought deserves further exploration, after the current matter is settled. Maybe the path to gaining further comprehension of her Estate would be through asking and getting acquainted with one who knows much about it. It would be bad for Deceivers everywhere if Trickery suddenly disappeared, too, so neither she nor her Estate would be in immediate danger. Ideas floated and buzzed and occupied her mind. The possibilities were endless.

She drinks a bit from her glass, and continues searching.

"I am of half a mind to learn more about myself and my Estate by getting acquainted with your husband, sister." She says suddenly.

[The_Snark]

Kate watches Ivan leave with an expression that (on a woman of lesser age and dignity) might be called 'pouty'. He's dangerous and difficult, yes, but one of her most poorly-kept secrets is that she likes both those things. In some ways she's changed since the old days; in others, not at all. But she wasn't lying about it being the sensible course, and these days she is trying to do the sensible thing. Obligation. Duty. Such a bother at times.

Ah well. She has her Familia to keep her entertained.

"Oh? Well, it might work," she says vaguely to Anya, returning her attention to the address book. "He does like his little games. But be careful, sister dear, of what you learn; your Estate is of this world, and he isn't."

Ah. Her finger stops at Agatha Helskite: Domina of Ambition, Noble by nature and noblewoman by blood, prominent hostess and social butterfly among the Powers, and (most importantly at the moment) sister caelestis to the considerably more reclusive Power of Cities. Perfect. Kate dials the number.

"Agatha, darling! So sorry to hear about your brother's loss."

[industrious]

Agatha

"Why, thank you, Kate."

Agatha's parties are renowned, and more than slightly infamous. Anyone who dares try to have a larger one usually ends up with theirs co-opted. But of course, what else could one expect from Ambition?

"We're dealing with this as best as we can."

Was there a subtle undercurrent of worry behind her refined speech?

[The_Snark]

"Of course. I only wanted to let you know you can call on me and my siblings, if there's anything you need." Kate's voice drops a little as she transitions from frivolous social call to business. Mostly business. Now is really not the time to play games with Agatha.

"Do you know if anyone is trying to organize a response yet? This touches on so many of us, so many Estates, I can't help but think someone ought to. At the very least we can pool information."