[ Like this, she was all but an extension of his presence. A masquerade hiding a masquerade. His intent hidden by her presence. His savagery hiding her malicious cruelty.
It might of been a dance, how they wove through the streets. The dark parts of the city that those who wished to be respectable avoided, and whores and thugs gave their trade. Her skirts already stained with muck even before this, her feet light as she stepped over the dirt that covered the ground.
But she tossed her head back, walking like she owned the cobble stones herself. The red hair she was so proud of turned to rust in the half torch light of poorly lit streets. Mistress of this place, no matter how ruthless the man she turned her gaze on, they would doff their hat and dip their head to her. And how she smirked for it, proud to the last. How she laughed when they told her as a girl, she should learn to fear the devil that hid in the dark.
They had stopped scaring her a long time ago, not when the cruelest thing she had ever seen was keeping company with her. ]
He drinks, with his fellows. [ There was a sneer. Loyalty came cheap. Whosoever of her men betrayed her often found that the gold was never enough by the time she was finished with them, and by the same contrast, fealty was rewarded in ample.
How happy it was for her, that Phillip's men were all traitors. Her lips parted further in a silent laugh that was between them both. ] He does not know they have sold him out.
[The air was moist and heavy with the scent of low tide. Dregs of oil lapping at the water's edge with the undertone of everything awful the bay could provide. The rotting wash of fish and bait licking with each caress of a gentle wave and it was slippery. Like that of an eel coiling around the thick wood base. In and out, back and forth.]
[Greed peeled out onto the main stretch, his grin smoldering. With a pinch and a flick, a rolled ignited. Helped by a match struck at the thigh, bringing the flames of Hell at his fingers. To caress his face, shining him in oranges that turned gold at his shades and his skin.]
[It was extinguished with a pinch that seemed like charcoal. His fingers suddenly too dark, too sharp and the Sin inhaled, sending smoke down into his core and out. Billows of it like serpents fleeing through his teeth as he tilted his head back in tow with her own. Found the pulse and stole it, too.]
Tsk - that's cruel, even for you. [He said with a slip of his eyes. Purples to watch as light flicked across the inky-black tide. Making lines where the moon crossed and both outlined in silver.] If you weren't human, she might have liked you.
[But he left it at that. Moving away and birthing room as he tossed heel over heel. Crossing and weaving, his neck sunk into his shoulders. He was a monster in every right: from the way he walked, to how he spoke. But unlike the others, Greed kept to a certain creed. He had tossed away the smoke and mirrors preferring the crueler side of the truth.]
[And almost, always, it won him far more favors.]
[Including the one present and the homunculus stopped at the cobblestone outside the edge of the docks. Rolled his shoulders with a slow-moving twist and his heels knocked against the thickly-spaced wood. Clack, went one. Clunk, went the other. Drawling, the proverbial reaper drawing near as teeth sunk into the end of rolled tobacco. Puncturing with a promise and he stopped once with a solid kick-back. Snapping the shelf of his boot to turn a glance over the fur-cuff of his shoulder.]
Last time, lovely. This is your chance to go on home.
[ Her pretty little lips parted in a smile at his compliment, a sweet girl's smile and beguiling. Her smile had always been her best feature, made her a blushing maid of spring. Only they should of revealed fangs, vicious jaws of a predator that dripped blood down her chin, between her breasts. Staining her in some irrevocably. ]
Thank you, Greed. [ a purr to mimic his own. Heady, inviting. She watched him, the tip of her tongue flicking against her top lip before she turned again to keep walking, contemplating what he saw in her with the gesture more than anything. ] I am human, and no one need like me but you.
[ With that she kept walking, confident in where she was going, that no one would dare stop her.
None save him.
She barely even noticed he stopped until the question cut through the evening mist. Her mind gone some place only she dare go to. Might kill anyone else for stepping into, or at least the look on her face said as much, when he asked. Elizabeth took a step forward, to him. Carefully she reached for him. Like a lover, or something else. Her head tilted to the side, not looking to meet his eyes, or not yet. She smoothed up his chest, curling her fingers in the fur and lost her earnest smile. ] Why do you ask me such tiresome questions? Think you to save me? Spare me more blood on my hands? [ She leant close, a whisper to his ear as he rolled his cigarette, like he was privy to some secret. Her eyes on the star as she spoke, lips there to tease and torment in equal measure. ]
I made my choice long before I knew you. Do not ask me such foolish things ever again, I tire of it. [ She let out a breath, kissed his cheek once more, and stepped away. ]
[She took him like a lover, but damned him like a villain. With sweet words laced like poison, but at least he was used to it. Knives that cut - that told him when he was out of bounds and as she coiled to him, Greed merely shrugged. Raised one hand to give the mildest charade of a surrender.] Noted. Just remember that this was your idea.
[Up ahead, torches flicked. A few unloading their gotten-gains. Crate after crate piling high on the planks and they oozed of fresh fish. Still flopping, gasping for air. It was fitting in a way - how every second that passed, there was something just barely hanging onto life. Dying moments waiting in the balance and it wouldn't just be next-day's market that would be begging for the sweet release.]
[Greed walked with her, shoved his nose to the side of her head. He could snap her neck right then and there; have at everything that was to come. All for himself. But he wouldn't and she knew. That despite his claim to fame, she wasn't on the dinner menu.]
[Not yet, anyway.]
[But he watched the dock, his glance far away as it split the darkness and saw. Every fearful glance, every frozen step. Like time unwinding before him and the Sin was privy to everything. Skipped heartbeats, erratic pulses: it was the best sort of drug.]
[And oh, was he just itching for the chance to show off.] But as long as we're being honest with one another, you and I know you're far too gone to be saved. Don't play bullshit with me, lovely. [The homunculus smiled against her hair, against her skin. Let his breath caress her as much as so wanted to. To take her clothes, to steal her skin. Running his claws down her curves to make her sing so loud that even the dregs of the under-city could hear.]
[That wasn't tonight's plan, though. Which was slightly disappointing.] Mn. [Greed let her go and turned his hands back to his pockets. What a witch and such a tease. He was right when he made the comment.]
[Had Elizabeth been something more, Lust would have liked her.]
[Suddenly, Greed slowed his pace. Waltzing instead of walking and each clap of his heel made the whole deck shiver. As if it knew what was coming and he seemed to melt into shadow. Races of black across his skin and he spat his smoke out. Let it roll across the wood until his boot smothered it and it was only hell-fire ash chasing the cuff of his heels, the billow of his jacket.]
Why don't you do the talking first then? [The creature tilted his head, looked down at her at a diagonal glance.] May as well make him comfortable first, right?
[ Like a marionette, her head canted to the side, eyes cold as his breath marked her like a too hot brand. A threat and a comfort. He was there, he was real, and what could they do to her? When the deadliest man in the street wrapped himself around her, they were as nothing.
But her eyes were cold even as he drank her in, watching the street. She watched how he looked, and for a moment, she considered. It would be bliss. She could fuck a man like him, because he wasn't a man at all, and wouldn't fail her like all the others did.
When on earth had her expectations from life gotten so low?] Bullshit, Greed? When have I ever pretend to be anything less than what I am?
[ Her cardinal sin, pride. Wrapped in vanity wrapped in her hunger for more. ( Always, always more. ) She might lie to others, often and as easy as breathing, but with him, she gave more than she did to most, which seemed to suit him.
When his grip lifted, she took the moment to roll her shoulders and sigh deeply. Letting him and all the complications he presented go from her mind, the half meant warnings she wanted to snap out and the welcoming murmurs she wished to give. Slipping from one mask to another in the shadows. A woman had so many that she could don them like dresses, and Elizabeth found herself with more than most. Now it was just a matter of tweaking, tugging her dress down to leave her shoulders bare. Mussing up her hair and biting her lips until they went red and kissed-bruised.
Little more than a street harlot to look at. Might of passed better for it, if her eyes were not half so much worse, all the same, it let her slip by relatively unnoticed. He was gone from her mind then, her own men to meet that she had left on watch, to talk with briefly and give instructions with what she wanted done. When and where and how. They scurried like rats to her orders. And it was only so much time before they heard what she needed. A brief nodded, and she wound her way back to Greed.
Mimicking again, and she ever did. Miming others intention, mocking almost for it. But she smiled and dipped her head, wound her arm around his. Lovers on a promenade. ]
I've a gift for you. Will you come see? [ Angels could not look so sweet. But she nodded ahead to a bar, that seemed mostly empty but for a flickering candle through a grubby window frame.
[Everyone woman had her consort and every witch had her cat. Greed was latter - the black feline to bring the worst of luck to anyone who crossed his path. Whether intentional or not; whether it was just bad timing or worse, it all ended the same. In tears and bloodshed. In a confession spoken not from the mouth, but from the eyes. The dying breath of a soul clinging to life, begging to have and spare.]
[But avarice-incarnate spared little, if any.]
[It was why it worked. Between him and Elizabeth. Eventually, time or the knife would take her and Greed would have to find someone else. But for now, the arrangement was simple: one scratched back exchanged for another and as Elizabeth took the lead, the Sin stayed behind her. Like the looming form of a shadow, the Nosferatu to take her when she least expected it.]
[But she wasn't so innocent and she had summoned him. All under the gaze of pretty lashes, pursed lips, and a naked shoulder.]
[Greed swayed with her stride, clacked when she clicked. As they towed down the length of the dock and the lights became dimmer and dimmer. Bringing in more of the thickness of night, shrouding what lay just below the surface. He could smell it more out here than he could before: the rotting stank of flesh, the crude growing old in barrels packed far over their capacity.]
[Humanity's greed was always impressive.] A gift, huh. [A low rumble from behind her and the homunculus slipped to her side. Watching the dock and the men that scurried when she came prancing across the wood. She was demented - deranged in her mirth. In her promise for carnage and revenge.]
[And Greed, if anything, was more than a little charmed.]
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no subject
It might of been a dance, how they wove through the streets. The dark parts of the city that those who wished to be respectable avoided, and whores and thugs gave their trade. Her skirts already stained with muck even before this, her feet light as she stepped over the dirt that covered the ground.
But she tossed her head back, walking like she owned the cobble stones herself. The red hair she was so proud of turned to rust in the half torch light of poorly lit streets. Mistress of this place, no matter how ruthless the man she turned her gaze on, they would doff their hat and dip their head to her. And how she smirked for it, proud to the last. How she laughed when they told her as a girl, she should learn to fear the devil that hid in the dark.
They had stopped scaring her a long time ago, not when the cruelest thing she had ever seen was keeping company with her. ]
He drinks, with his fellows. [ There was a sneer. Loyalty came cheap. Whosoever of her men betrayed her often found that the gold was never enough by the time she was finished with them, and by the same contrast, fealty was rewarded in ample.
How happy it was for her, that Phillip's men were all traitors. Her lips parted further in a silent laugh that was between them both. ] He does not know they have sold him out.
no subject
[Greed peeled out onto the main stretch, his grin smoldering. With a pinch and a flick, a rolled ignited. Helped by a match struck at the thigh, bringing the flames of Hell at his fingers. To caress his face, shining him in oranges that turned gold at his shades and his skin.]
[It was extinguished with a pinch that seemed like charcoal. His fingers suddenly too dark, too sharp and the Sin inhaled, sending smoke down into his core and out. Billows of it like serpents fleeing through his teeth as he tilted his head back in tow with her own. Found the pulse and stole it, too.]
Tsk - that's cruel, even for you. [He said with a slip of his eyes. Purples to watch as light flicked across the inky-black tide. Making lines where the moon crossed and both outlined in silver.] If you weren't human, she might have liked you.
[But he left it at that. Moving away and birthing room as he tossed heel over heel. Crossing and weaving, his neck sunk into his shoulders. He was a monster in every right: from the way he walked, to how he spoke. But unlike the others, Greed kept to a certain creed. He had tossed away the smoke and mirrors preferring the crueler side of the truth.]
[And almost, always, it won him far more favors.]
[Including the one present and the homunculus stopped at the cobblestone outside the edge of the docks. Rolled his shoulders with a slow-moving twist and his heels knocked against the thickly-spaced wood. Clack, went one. Clunk, went the other. Drawling, the proverbial reaper drawing near as teeth sunk into the end of rolled tobacco. Puncturing with a promise and he stopped once with a solid kick-back. Snapping the shelf of his boot to turn a glance over the fur-cuff of his shoulder.]
Last time, lovely. This is your chance to go on home.
no subject
Thank you, Greed. [ a purr to mimic his own. Heady, inviting. She watched him, the tip of her tongue flicking against her top lip before she turned again to keep walking, contemplating what he saw in her with the gesture more than anything. ] I am human, and no one need like me but you.
[ With that she kept walking, confident in where she was going, that no one would dare stop her.
None save him.
She barely even noticed he stopped until the question cut through the evening mist. Her mind gone some place only she dare go to. Might kill anyone else for stepping into, or at least the look on her face said as much, when he asked. Elizabeth took a step forward, to him. Carefully she reached for him. Like a lover, or something else. Her head tilted to the side, not looking to meet his eyes, or not yet. She smoothed up his chest, curling her fingers in the fur and lost her earnest smile. ] Why do you ask me such tiresome questions? Think you to save me? Spare me more blood on my hands? [ She leant close, a whisper to his ear as he rolled his cigarette, like he was privy to some secret. Her eyes on the star as she spoke, lips there to tease and torment in equal measure. ]
I made my choice long before I knew you. Do not ask me such foolish things ever again, I tire of it. [ She let out a breath, kissed his cheek once more, and stepped away. ]
no subject
[Up ahead, torches flicked. A few unloading their gotten-gains. Crate after crate piling high on the planks and they oozed of fresh fish. Still flopping, gasping for air. It was fitting in a way - how every second that passed, there was something just barely hanging onto life. Dying moments waiting in the balance and it wouldn't just be next-day's market that would be begging for the sweet release.]
[Greed walked with her, shoved his nose to the side of her head. He could snap her neck right then and there; have at everything that was to come. All for himself. But he wouldn't and she knew. That despite his claim to fame, she wasn't on the dinner menu.]
[Not yet, anyway.]
[But he watched the dock, his glance far away as it split the darkness and saw. Every fearful glance, every frozen step. Like time unwinding before him and the Sin was privy to everything. Skipped heartbeats, erratic pulses: it was the best sort of drug.]
[And oh, was he just itching for the chance to show off.] But as long as we're being honest with one another, you and I know you're far too gone to be saved. Don't play bullshit with me, lovely. [The homunculus smiled against her hair, against her skin. Let his breath caress her as much as so wanted to. To take her clothes, to steal her skin. Running his claws down her curves to make her sing so loud that even the dregs of the under-city could hear.]
[That wasn't tonight's plan, though. Which was slightly disappointing.] Mn. [Greed let her go and turned his hands back to his pockets. What a witch and such a tease. He was right when he made the comment.]
[Had Elizabeth been something more, Lust would have liked her.]
[Suddenly, Greed slowed his pace. Waltzing instead of walking and each clap of his heel made the whole deck shiver. As if it knew what was coming and he seemed to melt into shadow. Races of black across his skin and he spat his smoke out. Let it roll across the wood until his boot smothered it and it was only hell-fire ash chasing the cuff of his heels, the billow of his jacket.]
Why don't you do the talking first then? [The creature tilted his head, looked down at her at a diagonal glance.] May as well make him comfortable first, right?
no subject
But her eyes were cold even as he drank her in, watching the street. She watched how he looked, and for a moment, she considered. It would be bliss. She could fuck a man like him, because he wasn't a man at all, and wouldn't fail her like all the others did.
When on earth had her expectations from life gotten so low?] Bullshit, Greed? When have I ever pretend to be anything less than what I am?
[ Her cardinal sin, pride. Wrapped in vanity wrapped in her hunger for more. ( Always, always more. ) She might lie to others, often and as easy as breathing, but with him, she gave more than she did to most, which seemed to suit him.
When his grip lifted, she took the moment to roll her shoulders and sigh deeply. Letting him and all the complications he presented go from her mind, the half meant warnings she wanted to snap out and the welcoming murmurs she wished to give. Slipping from one mask to another in the shadows. A woman had so many that she could don them like dresses, and Elizabeth found herself with more than most. Now it was just a matter of tweaking, tugging her dress down to leave her shoulders bare. Mussing up her hair and biting her lips until they went red and kissed-bruised.
Little more than a street harlot to look at. Might of passed better for it, if her eyes were not half so much worse, all the same, it let her slip by relatively unnoticed. He was gone from her mind then, her own men to meet that she had left on watch, to talk with briefly and give instructions with what she wanted done. When and where and how. They scurried like rats to her orders. And it was only so much time before they heard what she needed. A brief nodded, and she wound her way back to Greed.
Mimicking again, and she ever did. Miming others intention, mocking almost for it. But she smiled and dipped her head, wound her arm around his. Lovers on a promenade. ]
I've a gift for you. Will you come see? [ Angels could not look so sweet. But she nodded ahead to a bar, that seemed mostly empty but for a flickering candle through a grubby window frame.
( And this, was her favourite game. ) ]
no subject
[But avarice-incarnate spared little, if any.]
[It was why it worked. Between him and Elizabeth. Eventually, time or the knife would take her and Greed would have to find someone else. But for now, the arrangement was simple: one scratched back exchanged for another and as Elizabeth took the lead, the Sin stayed behind her. Like the looming form of a shadow, the Nosferatu to take her when she least expected it.]
[But she wasn't so innocent and she had summoned him. All under the gaze of pretty lashes, pursed lips, and a naked shoulder.]
[Greed swayed with her stride, clacked when she clicked. As they towed down the length of the dock and the lights became dimmer and dimmer. Bringing in more of the thickness of night, shrouding what lay just below the surface. He could smell it more out here than he could before: the rotting stank of flesh, the crude growing old in barrels packed far over their capacity.]
[Humanity's greed was always impressive.] A gift, huh. [A low rumble from behind her and the homunculus slipped to her side. Watching the dock and the men that scurried when she came prancing across the wood. She was demented - deranged in her mirth. In her promise for carnage and revenge.]
[And Greed, if anything, was more than a little charmed.]