nightshade

“Smile with your teeth, darling. Do not be afraid to show the world that you would eat it whole.”

She liked the moustache, really. At first, it made it easier to paint the picture of a bad man who needed a dose of comic punishment—cartoonishly evil. Then... it wasn’t that simple.

"Out of all the times I've tied people up, it's never been to train tracks. You have my word on that, for what it's worth." Sensible people would likely say that the word of a professional killer wasn't very trustworthy, but Diego liked to think that even if he was a bad guy, he had a certain level of honor. He had a moral code and it wasn't his problem if other people couldn't understand it.

As difficult of a man as Diego was to pin down, Mei Lin couldn't help but feel like he was making some sort of concession by being there with her. Maybe she didn't know what made him tick, didn't know his poison of choice or what type of woman was his vice, but she knew this - he was powerful, and he was deadly, and he was asking her for a favor. God, there was no greater thrill than having a man like that in the palm of your hand, and for the first time since she'd known him, Mei Lin could sense him wandering near. "I'm sure you understand just how delicate the political climate is right now. And with recent revelations, trust is difficult." She believed the Hollow when they said Barone planned on killing them all and Mei Lin wasn't a woman to be slighted. It didn't matter if there was going to be new leadership or not, she hadn't see a single hair of a Family member and she wouldn't forgive the inconsideration when they should have been crawling to beg her forgiveness for Barone's daring. "What I want, more than anything, is for my business to prosper."

"You mean the Family wanted us all exterminated and may still want it, plus we have the Hollow out there playing boogeyman and you don't know which direction the knife is coming from." Diego surmised, giving Mei Lin points if she was aware enough that her past with the Family didn't necessarily make her safe. If - no, when - the Hollow struck again, the others were likely to go scrambling like rats and eventually paranoia would make them jumpy, fingers would be pointed and blame would be thrown around. No one was to be trusted and Diego didn't trust Mei Lin, but some enemies were more predictable than others… and besides, he generally liked her people. "Because you're a business woman. So we continue to make deals that support your financially, for a start." And he assumed there was a guarantee of protection coming somewhere in there, but Diego wasn't about to promise her the moon just in exchange for rumors. He wanted some level of fairness and transparency, but Mei Lin had the opaqueness of smoky glass and Diego wasn't going to get distracted no matter how friendly she was or how many escorts she offered up to him.

"Not yet, my voice is loud and clear. No singing, though." Noemie narrowed her eyes, playing along to the little banter. Perhaps it wasn't the best of times for it- surrounded by darkness and calming waves of the ocean, and facing a stranger - but she was in one of those odd moods when caution was thrown out of a window a long, long time ago. Perhaps the visits to the graveyard were to blame, or perhaps she was always just a little bit reckless. The way the man's eyes seemed to wander around, inspecting their surroundings, and that should've been worrisome on its own, but Noemie wasn't really paying attention. Perhaps she really wasn't just a little bit reckless. "So you know your lore. Are we sure you won't be the sea witch in hiding?" She countered back, finally looking away from the tranquilizing view of the ocean and focusing on the stranger nearby. "Perhaps. Quite the assumption to make when we're the only ones here. Should I fear the predators here?"

"I've been called a lot of things, but sea witch is new. There could be worse villains to be compared to." Diego admitted, although he didn't exactly have a list of which storybook villains were the worst and most deserving of a terrible fate. He did know that in the original story, the sea witch wasn't a villain, but a shrewd business woman, and that there wasn't any punishment for her and the mermaid didn't get her prince, but Diego highly doubted the stranger in front of him had some great interest in debating the changes between disney movies and their origins. "You just don't strike me as a particularly fearful woman. I don't think you have anything to worry about. Do I?" He asked, tipping his head. It could easily have been seen as a teasing question, but it was genuine - even if Diego knew that he wouldn't be able to trust any answer from a true threat. One incident wasn't enough to know how the Hollow operated, so anyone could be a threat, but Diego severely doubted a murder at a beach would be showy enough to the Hollow. Perhaps if they strung his body along the beach in a warning, used various hacked up body pieces to form a message, that would work.

There were few people Stella would have given in to, respected their choice to demand anything but the caring physician. Her hands shot up, admitting defeat without so much as a word uttered as she scanned the area. “Alright, boss. You do you. For now.” A shrug, her shoulders indicating that the battle may have been won by the man in front of her, but the war Stella was determined to win. At least when it came to hydration.

Nodding, Diego took the temporary win, trusting that she would bring it up again at some point in the future and he would eventually suffer from not listening to her. The chances that he'd admit that to Stella were slender, but he'd make a show of grabbing a bottle of gatorade or something later to hopefully ward off her complaints. There wasn't a guarantee he would drink it, but she didn't need to know that.

A pointed finger gestured idly over her shoulder. She didn’t take her eyes off him. "That's a lot of locks..." she mused, lids low and shoulders heavy, counting the clicks in her head—Three? Four? She had already forgotten. Her plush lips inevitably settled into a pensive pout, trembling against the numbing torpor creeping up her spine. She welcomed it with a sigh of relief. Raindrops trickled down her cheeks as she blinked, the relentless downpour matching her spirits, as if the world, too, was falling apart.

"Not really. Any standard door comes with at least two." He pointed out, not even having needed to add another set to the door to make three. Of course, he had a new door and new locks, everything reinforced, but still, he hadn't needed to do anything to increase the number that was already there. That probably wasn't the point at the moment, and it really wasn't any of her business, but considering the way she'd tracked him down despite Diego never giving up his address, it made him wonder what she would have done if he hadn't answered the door.

“Do not cry wolf; become it.”

"I said yes to a beer, not acid reflux." Though, truth be told a grilled cheese sounded pretty good right about now -- especially considering all he'd had that morning was a strong cup of coffee to nurse the hangover from the night before. Now that the nausea had worn off, the hunger was not setting in, apparently. "No, not typically. But paranoia has a hell of a way of fucking things up -- even for the best of us. The most careful of us." He knew he didn't have to explain any of this to Diego of all people, but he had to make sure he expressed how quickly such a simple request could go sour. "Here's the thing though, you and your band of bullshitters may have a counter plan in place, but me? You slip up, don't cover your tracks as well as you think, anything, and I'm fucked." Which meant, in not so many words, that payday would behave to be more than worth it. "Yeah, yeah, don't get your panties in a twist. I'm comin'."

"Then order something else, they'll let you." He was starting to think that Nolan was being difficult in revenge for the bottle, which Diego still didn't feel sorry overly sorry about. If Nolan's nose had started bleeding, then sure, Diego would probably be dabbing at the blood and telling Nolan not to be a baby, but the water bottle hadn't maimed anyone. "So what is it that you want? Someone to keep surveillance on you? A ticket for an escape on a helicopter whenever you need it? If there's something you're after besides cash, you need to name it." He could keep guessing, but Diego wasn't fond of taking shots in the dark. Reaching up, Diego rubbed at the back of his neck and rolled his head from side to side, feeling a series of pops before he nodded. Waiting patiently for Nolan to head out, Diego waited a beat before adding, "Band of bullshitters? Really?" There wasn't any bullshit about the fact people ended up dead when his people were put on the task and Diego wasn't in the habit of making false promises. "Thought that was your area."

Gemma hadn't planned to be stood up from a tinder date. It was almost insulting now that she thought about it given the people that she tended to meet up with, but maybe she was to blame because her online presence was far from what she had to offer while in person. It was their loss. But still, she'd hoped for a bit of entertainment. It was why she'd found herself at a bar but that only lasted for no less than thirty minutes before she stole a bottle and decided to find solace in her own company on the beach. At the sound of a voice, one she recognized no less, she almost jumped out of her skin. "I could say the same about you. What are you doing here?" Her hand pinned back some hair so she could get a good look at him. "Are you by yourself?"

"Not a body to be seen, dead or alive." Diego assured her, mind automatically assuming that she thought he was there to either deal with someone or to dispose of a body. He wasn't a man that used the word friends to describe even his closest of associates, so of course the idea that he was meeting up with someone for some friendly stargazing didn't occur to him as a possibility. "Figured if I'm not going to be sleeping, might as well watch the moon. I have my phone if anyone needs me." Diego had always been a night owl who kept late hours and if he hadn't been on the beach, chances were he'd be cleaning guns or overseeing details of jobs that his people were on. Hovering, some might call it, but he'd always been a very hands on boss, wanting to know the strength and weaknesses of his people so they could be used most effectively. "Your turn. What are you doing out here?"

Midnight walks were such a cliche, Noemie always reminded herself. She was way, way beyond that, but her working ours extended past the regular times, and she still wanted to visit her sister's grave. It was always somewhat relaxing to her, it always made her feel better; it was almost like picking up the phone and calling her, telling her about her day and all the other nonsense that seemed so miniscule now. Still, she made it to the graveyard, even as the last glimses of the sun disappeared in the horizon, feeling a lot more comfortable there than one should. Noemie felt equally comfortable at the beach, where she decided to stop after visiting her sister, needing the fresh air and the calming sound of the waves, the cooling feeling of the water on her skin. "And what if I'm actually a mermaid? Would you really try to withhold me from getting to my home?" It was a silly argument, but she was far too exhausted to come up with anything decent.

"A mermaid, huh? Interesting, did you make a deal with a sea witch?" He asked, amused at her answer. It could be fun to find people that could banter and since he wasn't on the job, there wasn't a good reason why he couldn't enjoy her humor. It wasn't a crime for someone to walk the beach alone in the middle of the night, but Diego still found himself glancing along the beach in case she was a distraction for something else. He couldn't see anything, but it didn't rule out the chance of a long distance attack - not that the lady herself couldn't be dangerous, of course. "And here I would have expected a selkie coming to retrieve her coat. But either way, I bet you know how to handle predators." Never let it be said he didn't know his myths and couldn't roll with bullshit when presented with it, and he wasn't actually there to interrogate people minding their own business and not causing any trouble.

Midnight strolls weren't exactly part of her routine but with a restless foster dog she was willing to try just about anything to burn off some of the nervous energy that seemed to inhabit the shepherd. A recent discovery had been made that Lulu loved water and so the beach had seemed like the perfect destination. One she was confident that she had to herself until a voice made her start, it taking her a moment to realise it was a familiar one. "Jesus, Diego." His name was hissed like a curse, glare sent over her shoulder. She wasn't the only one with her hackles raised, the dog beside her letting out a low rumble. "Easy, Lu." Soothing words were murmured before she started up splashing again, distracting the dog from the threat that turned out to be a friend. "I swear to god if you invoking the name of Jaws summons up a shark, I'm feeding it you." It was among the dumber things to ever leave her lips but she'd let herself get startled and now she was scrambling to make it seem as though she hadn't been oblivious to his presence mere moments ago. She did what she did best when she was improvising - opened her mouth without engaging brain. "If anything happened to my girls it'd be more like a John Wick movie than Jaws. I'd get my own theme and everything as I hunted down those responsible - to be clear, that's you. The shark is just doing what sharks do." Her kicking stopped as her tirade of nonsense did, seeing that Lulu was tiring she ambled up the beach towards the tower. "Some moon, huh?" Head tilted as she looked up at him. "Don't know that I had you pegged as the stargazing type."

Chuckling to himself at the way CC had so clearly been startled, Diego only felt sorry that he'd also started the dog with her, even if it also made him decide to have a bad of doggie biscuits delivered to her later on. Diego had nothing against animals and he liked dogs, and the way this one seemed protective was a point in it's favor for Diego. "I'm flattered you think I'm that powerful. I've been accused of many things, but never being able to summon the beasts of the sea." Propping his chin on his hand, Diego was content to listen to her ramble, letting himself smile at her audacity because unlike some, he didn't think CC was trying to become a power hungry despot. She wasn't flawless and Diego could think of a list of her flaws, but none of them were grievous sins that he would send her to a firing squad for. "What's that quote? Man is the only animal that kills for pleasure?" Diego didn't kill for pleasure, but his motivation didn't seem to be that important to most and he didn't care what the media said about Nightshade's exploits because he knew what he was trying to do. "And what did you have me pegged as?" He was a night owl, he needed something to do besides just staring at a phone and since it didn't happen all that often, why not spare just one night? Straightening up, Diego started to make his way down the ladder so that he could join CC and her dogs on the beach, the structure creaking under him. "So, you going to introduce me to your pretty companions?"