justice incarnate

The detective was proud of the attention she had been paying the party, a little smug about it. Tez shrugged in response to her comment, touching the pendant of obsidian that hung around her neck. She angled it towards the detective, and saw an image of her divine form, of large, encompassing wings. Tez smiled to herself and let the pendant hang freely.

“But what you think is more interesting,” Tez said to Tisiphone, catching glimmers of her desires. A lust for justice, vengeance; the typical drivers of a fury. Still, Tez wanted to go deeper into Joi’s psyche, figure out what made the detective tick, tick, tick.

And sure enough, Joi gave her a taste, a sliver of her thoughts. Tame enough, that someone was seeing how much they could get away with. Tez laughed out loud. “Isn’t that the point of descension? To see how much we can get away with?” Tez asked her, tilting her head to the side. “You, you’re trying to prove you do not need your sisters’ help.”

     To be fair, what they and their sisters had done could be considered more ascension than descension, considering how people believed the underworld and its many counterparts sat in the hierarchy. But that was a digression they weren’t willing to verbalize at the moment.

     Instead, they tilt their head and look over at Tez, snorting out what passes for a genuine sort of laugh for Tisi; Joi wasn’t one for mirth, seeming to lend themselves more towards gravitas than what their name might imply, but perhaps if they were allowed to let loose a bit more as they had with their sisters in the old days they’d be better at it. If only...

     “I don’t know which of us doesn’t need the other, but I do think we’re all trying to prove that. And...” They pause, crinkling their nose thoughtfully as they regress for a moment into something almost primordial inside, “There’s a difference between descension and willingly thinning the ranks for the sake of... what? Ego? What would killing a god serve most of us other than a bit of fun. But this one feels different...”

He knows what it is that they speak of - the loss, in the most primal of ways, can never be completely healed. He felt that loss with Mokosh, even with Marzanna - one is dead for good, the other still remain a mystery. The lover, and the daughter, he missed them both, and he knows he’ll keep missing them for an eternity. Unless someone does him in, which - save for Perun - isn’t that likely. He is an annoyance, yes, but not that big of an annoyance.

“You’re preaching to the choir, sister.” Veles responded with a knowing bob of his head, his fingers curling around the glass, drawing it to his lips to have another taste of the strong liquor. “We all seem to have wounds that never heal. I wonder about that thing mortals always say - ‘Time heals everything.’ - except that it doesn’t. We are eternal, we will continue to feel things eternally. It’s a real damn nuisance, once you truly think about it.”

Tisiphone spoke again, and Veles found himself chuckling at her words. “Apologies, I won’t bother you with my occult knowledge then.” He didn’t take offense in her rejection, he’s quite used to it - no fury would have their fortunes told, unless it aligns with their goals - or their boredom. But, when they spoke again, Vel sighed.

“Truthfully speaking, I am… not entirely sure. Whatever it is, it keeps itself hidden from perception. I think this is far from over. There is as lot more going on than we know, and that worries me a lot more than dying. I think we shouldn’t brush it off as nothing, but it isn’t wise to panic, either.”

     “The reason time heals so well for mortals is they have so little of it. To waste that time on a petty thought or vengeance for them can seem daunting and useless, because spending a few years is more than a lifetime for some of them... for us, however? We can carry grudges through rebirths, through manifestations, through the very sight of someone igniting in us a fire again. We live forever, so we feel forever, even if we pretend to be above such.” The tone they displayed was almost deadpan, but there was a hint of lilt in there; they felt the pain... Joi missed their sisters.

     The explanation given for whether it was out there, whatever it was, hunting them all gave Joi pause. They tilted their head, expression devoid for a moment as they seemed to stare past Veles, over the shoulder and into the shadows as percolation got their brain moving, “To defy the gods one has to be a god, and it is very likely even that would not keep us all of their scent... it’s perhaps not someone but someones and... maybe some parties were partaking unbeknownst to them.”

Of course Tisiphone couldn’t resist the squid, it was divine after all. She held up her hand for a waiter to bring over a tray of flashing neon drinks, a party trick she was genuinely surprised by. It smelled alcoholic, with a spritz of lemon, and tasted the perfect combination of sour and sweet. A new take on a whiskey sour. Tez wondered whether her insides were now fluorescent. “Who said I wasn’t paying attention?” Tez said to Joi, maliciously amused by their nerves. She much preferred Alekto, who had the guts to let Tez know exactly what she thought of her.

“What is it that you think is happening here?” Tez asked Joi, swirling her drink around in her glass. Wondering whether she’d be given a look behind the curtains, as it were. See how the great detective worked. All the better to wind her up later. “You think this is something more than a party?” It was at least a metaphorical dick measuring contest. Kanaloa truly had no class when it came to flexing his power.

     “Not as close as I have, even if you have been.” Joi said with a certain magnitude of pride — allowed in small doses and only in things they could back up — before biting into the squid with a soft sigh and washing it down with a bit of the florescent drink; were their insides now marked? Maybe easier to track. A thought danced through her head as they finalized the swallow and again, their shoulders lifted in a shrug.

     “What I think is less important than what is, but I know what isn’t happening.” Whether Joi was going to share what that was was anyone’s guess as they stared off into the distance and watched a man swallow a tray of the aforementioned squid almost whole, their nose wrinkling.

Tisiphone’s Place

    In a location that very few known and without any kind of markings on the outside — no numbers, no street name — and hidden in an alley surrounded by barely legal cybertech emporiums offering high quality cyberware at a fraction of what you’d expect, it’s the last place anyone would expect Joi to live; that’s why she likes it.

     Its run down exterior (top image) isn’t much better on the inside, though her OCD manages to keep her from letting the bedroom get into a state of disrepair (middle image). She sleeps there when necessary and on the rare occasion that she has company, that’s where she entertains.

Tez kept her smug smile to herself, happy enough with having made Tisiphone admit that the laws she served were flawed. All the more reason to operate outside them, to bring about change that brought about a simple truth; follow Tezcatlipoca, and be at ease. She could hear Joi’s footsteps behind her, following her on her excursion to fetch some food. It had already been a long night, and with the wrong fury hounding her it was sure to feel longer.

“It’s a party, Joi,” Tez said, motioning to a room full of youths dopa-drunk on gigglewater and stumbling against each other in an imitation of dancing. “Set your worries aside, perhaps you’d enjoy yourself.” Tez was no fool, she could see that this party was drenched in Kanaloa’s ambition. Here he had a gathering of mortals who idolised him for throwing this party, and a whole queue of desperate souls debating making the swim in the face of the omnipresent fear of missing out. Yet, she was confident in her own power, in the fact that many of Kanaloa’s delights were reliant on Tez’s goodwill to continue supplying him.

They entered the dining room, set up with cocktail tables and scantily dressed servers in shimmering, bejewled outfits. Tez called over one server with a flick of her hand, who wore nothing but a curtain of silver and neon beads that hung off his waist. “Crispy squid?” she offered Tisiphone. It was cooked to perfection, of course.  

     It wasn’t that Joi was without her own curiosities — beyond that of murder and the justice that it deserved, mind you — but she tended to get hyper focused on one thing and that became the whole of her person for a while; it wasn’t any more fun for her than it was for anyone else, but as far as modern medicine had come she still felt that tingle of compulsion to follow things through until the end to the point of driving herself to near insanity.

     ... not that she’d ever let anyone in on that. Instead, delicate shoulders lifted in a shrug as her fingertips trailed gently across one of the displays in Kanaloa’s place as she passed, feeling a sudden tingle run up and through her arm and jerking it back to her side as subtly as she could — everything was electric here, so to speak, and she wasn’t sure how long exposure would take her to go from her usual, appreciated state of slightly high to totally blitzed and terrified because of the loss of control. She tended to keep herself in check because no one wanted to see a fury unleashed — people though Alekto was bad because she tended to not hold back ever but the truth is they all had their own terrifying nature lying just beneath the surface just waiting to be unleashed.

whom: open

     After having swam, pulled herself out of the water — surprisingly more easy than she’d thought it would be, almost as if Kanaloa wanted party crashers — and dried herself off, she had the unfortunate task of slipping a still damp body into a dress that resisted the effects. Eventually, she got everything just so, a hand smoothing her hair against her head and coiffed as best she could given the circumstances and exited the small room she’d found off one of the larger with a bevy of towels.

     While casual was not necessarily her modus operandi, she was still only tense when it mattered, and a gentle lean against a wall as people shuffled past, to and from other parts — some wrapped in one another and giggling — she merely observed, fingertips tapping against her left thigh in a staccato rhythm.

Ah, a fury in his presence - he was flattered. He shared more than a few things with the chaotic Greek erynies - being a judgemental God of the Underworld seemed to be a shared component. So, his lips quirked in a grin, observing the deity taking a seat in front of him. “So pessimistic. Had your heart broken lately?” Veles asked in mock sympathy ( not that he was mocking her - he just doubted her heart held any love for those who weren’t her siblings. he respected that. ).

Interesting.

“Are you speaking as a fury, or as a detective?” He tilted his head to the side, shuffling the deck in the process - it soothed him, if nothing else. “You know Gods. If they can be extravagant over everything, they will be. Especially in this day and age.” He commented, before snorting. “Celebrating life? Celebrating what? A perpetual mystery, and a fleeting moment to mortals - eternal annoyance to us going through mind numbing ascensions and descensions, as if they truly mean anything.”

“Perhaps I am old. Tired. Or perhaps you, as a thing of vengeance, has a deeper insight to this charade we call life. I can speak of death, I know death. Life, it bores me.” A pause, and then ; “So, fortunes told, or untold, what shall it be?”

     The loss Tisi felt was far deeper than any lost lover. They had lost a piece of themselves in the moment that they and their sisters had splintered. The very definition of their being was based on the idea of the three of them, and though some might see that as unhealthy, it didn’t dictate that they weren’t their own being, just that without their sisters they were adrift in the sea of possibilities of where they’d turn, “In more ways than one, but none that require divination.”

     That should put an end to it, but Veles seemed the type to have a sort of morbid curiosity and might go digging of his own accord; it wasn’t their business beyond that. They didn’t hide her pain or the fact that their sisters mattered, they just sometimes tried to veil just how much they mattered to them. It was easier that way.

     “I am as likely to get anything from your cards as I am the people here, so you could delve generally into the idea of me wanting answers. Yes, as a detective. No matter where I stand, at what hour, and in what outfit, I am always a detective.” They offered, truthful to a fault, their eyes closing for a moment and leveled on Veles, “Should we all be worried about more of us dying at this rate?”

.

Oh, the detective was trying to rattle her! Tez smiled at the fury, still good-natured. “The entry fee was a trifle. I thought you… well… Trespassing is a form of breaking the law, isn’t it? Unless, you are suggesting you are above those very laws you have sworn to serve? That you, like me, can see beyond their limitations?” Tez sucked on her teeth, and grinned at Tisiphone. Xipe Totec was the brother who was truly good at getting under peoples’ skins, but Tez had learnt a thing or two in her time.

“Joi,” Tez tsked as the detective gave enticing Tez into self-incrimination a go. “This is Kanaloa’s party, not mine. If there is anything objectionable here you must take it up with him.” Truth was, she’d had no idea about all of the delights Kanaloa had planned. She didn’t get involved in the mundane day-to-day affairs of her empire. “If it is simple delights that amuse you, I believe there’s a canape bar upstairs. I’m starving,” Tez said, walking past Joi without looking behind her.

     A shrug lifted Joi’s delicate shoulders briefly, bare in the dress she wore and perhaps with a few spots of moisture still apparent from her swim in; she didn’t care that she’d gotten wet or even that she might look foolish as justice was the point and the means to that end was fine given she hadn’t hurt anyone else really with her presence.

     “The law is a guide to lead people to the right path, but sometimes it is flawed. If you were to find a baby stuck in a closed vehicles with no one around, breaking the window would still be a crime in most districts and yet the overall act of saving a child would be seen as justified.” The smile that spreads across her lips does not quite touch her eyes, but she seemed so sure of herself it was hard to actually bump up against it; she also knows Tez to a degree, however, and knows that she’ll do her best to keep bumping right into it until her own will would falter.

     She knew what her sister, Alekto, would do on a normal day. The fight would have already begun and she’d be bloodied, but... that had never been Tisi’s wheelhouse unless the other two were around. They amplified one another.

     Joi shifted at her desk, fingertips grazing over the empty cup of coffee — even if it had been full it’d have been stone cold by this point — and managed to tip it onto the file in front of her. Drops of coffee slid across the slick surface and she brushed them away with her sleeve, little concern for her clothes at that point and seemingly lost in the thoughts of the case before her. A sigh, and her eyes fell down towards the name across the file; her vision blurred — lack of sleep and good intentions — with exhaustion and she let out a slow, calming breath.

     Each file was brought to its proper place as she let her eyes close. It happened like that sometimes. A reboot of sorts for her brain with a rapid fluttering of her eyelids; she could organize things blind at this point. When her eyes opened again everything was where it should be… except the plethora of empty cups that were then swept into the bin off to the side. One bounced off the rim and rolled across the floor, hitting the wall (dingy as it was) just beneath a framed picture of herself with her sisters. A blink up at the picture and she closed her eyes again.

.

Ah, and who should be lingering behind her than a fury. Unfortunately, it was the wrong sister. The one with a grudge about Tez, as if it were her fault that Alekto had chosen to hitch their wagon to Tez’s cause. Tez gave her a dismissive look up and down, brushing an imaginary piece of dust off of her turquoise, silk shirt, as if to say, away you piece of dust. “Who are we to judge what entertains mortals?” Tez said with an inconsequential shrug. “Though I have heard that bubbles infused with gigglewater are quite delightful. Dreadfully intoxicating. Perhaps some would brighten your mood after your swim?”

Tez sucked on her teeth and looked around the room, at the people who had sought out this room as a solitude of quiet and peace. “What room would you suggest we visit, kindly one?” Tez asked, slipping her hands into her trouser pockets and leaning back on her heels. “Something a little simpler?”

     Though she had every right to speak up at that moment — to point out that, for some of them, judging mortals was exactly what they existed for — she decided to pick her battles and instead offered a thinly veiled smile. The issue with Tez wasn’t so much that Alekto had hitched her wagon to a horse that was definitely in the lead and likely to win, so to speak, but that Joi got the distinct feeling that if it came down to it... her sister would be left to die in a gutter if it suited the purpose of the other goddess.

     Instead, however, she chose to run her fingers against her still damp hair and the smile she wore became far more genuine, if only to herself; she didn’t mind a swim, “It seemed better than dropping a bunch of money on something that I wasn’t invited to, you know? That seems somehow... sad. Paying for inclusion. I’d rather sneak in unseen and get what I need.”

     Did she know Tez hadn’t been invited? Did she know Tez had paid her way in? Did she think this would at all cause a reaction in the other? Yes to some, no to others, but if they were trying to play a verbal game of chess, making moves was necessary even in lateral motion.