Strut on a Line; It's Discord and Rhyme

[Erynies Adrasteia]

It's been a week since Casey Rose's untimely demise and aside from Pedro Halcónez initial visit and a couple perfunctory questions from the LAPD, no one has bothered the Siren and the Fury about their potential involvement nor have the two other sisters of fury attempted to confront them. To Ryn that seems more or less normal, she's used to being the consequence, not being on the receiving end of them after all, but she's been rolling Katarina's words over and over in her head. Not just her suggested approach to have their problems deal with each other but their talk of unjust oaths as well.

It's Philosopher-Talk and Ryn hates philosophers. At least she did when they were pompous men making primal truths into complicated human-things, usually to elevate their own importance in the universe. Maybe there'd been those with clever-thoughts back then too and Ryn just didn't know to listen for them. Which makes her worry she's no better than those self-same foolish-men or self-important Gods. This isn't supposed to be complicated and now she's questioning even the days she thought simple and clear. All because of Katarina. Or thanks to Katarina.

The Siren thought Ryn's 'oath' no longer applicable and thus fair to break. That's wasn't entirely true to what happened to Ryn but the end result is the same. She went against her nature and thus is no longer absolute. The true extent of that she doesn't even grasp herself, but naturally her Sisters see it as a failing. Katarina thinks it is not. Because Ryn had already changed? Wanted to change? Deserved to change? By changing she proved she could. That probably sounds stupid to human ears but is the exact kind of tautology that defines her kind.

And none of that actually gives her anything actionable. She'd tailed the reporter when she'd been able but he mostly just... talked to people and wrote stuff down. She could tell it was doing something. She couldn't fully put it in words but there was a subtle shift in the smell of the city. Like a mountain lion shifting the paths through it's hunting grounds after a storm that flattened trees and scattered it's prey. She'd pinned a large map of the city to one of the walls of their apartment in an attempt to translate her instincts into something useful. The bulk of her additions so far were crude sketches of buildings she was able to associate with the abstract map, including the initial swath of mayhem. Not her finest hour but it did contribute quite a bit to how Ryn navigated the rooftops and terraces of the city.

Based on those landmarks she'd scribbled in an approximation of her nightly routes in solid black loops while adding swathes of crayon-colored clouds to represent areas that felt 'off'. Some only deepened with each layer of color but many were shifting, rearranging. Consolidating. A paranoid predator withdrawing to it's safest routes and hunting grounds. Two spots on the map were marked with a bright red X. Scenes of gruesome violence that weren't Ryn's doing. She'd doodled an almost cartoonish face of of her sisters on each, one with a sneering grin with little bat-wings bracketing it, the other one with cheeks puffed out in a huff. Even Ryn had to admit it gave the whole thing a strange vibe but she couldn't really rub them out.

She was mulling over it now, perched on top of the backrest of a chair like it was the edge of a roof. "It's going to lash out..." she mumbles to herself, talking about the trafficking ring as if it was just a singular harried predator. "Attack the reporter-prey. Set a trap for the hunter-killer." she nods to herself. That's what she would do anyway.

[Katarina Kane]

The week had not gone as well for Katarina.

Being at the scene of a murder? It's Los Angeles, these things happen. Being plastered on the front page of a tabloid, in the flesh? That was harder to swallow. Media appearances had been cancelled by the label's publicist, and the twins, Lucie and Piper, hadn't called or stopped by or anything like they normally had. At least for the moment, Kata Kane was persona non grata at the label, at least until everything blew over. It didn't help that, hey, the head of international talent relations had just taken a swandive off of the top floor; that power vacuum would have to be filled before matters as small as salvaging the reputation of a europop diva could take precedence.

Thus, the siren had done a lot of vague moping around the apartment, her schedule suddenly much clearer than it had been over the past few months. And, perhaps to Ryn's consternation, Katarina seemed more concerned about that than this twinge of instinct that was beating down Ryn's brain. Maybe that's not something the Deva understood, but the idea of being frustrated over the lack of agency; the ability to do anything? That was probably more relatable.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn might not fully understand the concept of being at the whims of a... society? But she is learning to emphasize and to admit there's some things you can just walk through unflinchingly to get what you want. That works when what you want is as simple as punching in someone's ribcage, not so much for... most everything else it turns out. Very annoying. And she feels at least a little guilty. Not for performing her purpose, that part she won't budge on, even if that means Katarina considers her a serial killer. Or thinks that the world does at the very least. She does hope that deep down she gets it and letting Ryn off the leash at Casey's confession probably means just that.

But Ryn had probably overreacted just a little bit. She'd needed to stretch, to let herself be after so much change and living in Katarina's world. She might look calm and collected most of the time but she's a creature of passion. Just... the angry kind. So she'd made an example of Casey because the bed of her nails had itched for her hands to wrought violence on the corrupt. And hurt Katarina in the process. She keeps doing that and somehow the Siren still finds it in her to forgive the Deva.

She needs to do something to fix this and she knows there's not a chance in hell she can figure out what on her own. And asking Katarina would just be putting that burden on her. She'd have to talk to Lucie and Piper. She can't help but eel like those two want something from Ryn and maybe she'll have to give it to them to solve this mess she created. She'd just have to buy herself some space to do so because she can't help but feel like anything Lucie-Piper would raise her sisters' heckles from across town.


"Do you think the paper-writer could be made to investigate a place?" she asks, still perched on the chair. Her brow is furrowed as she tries to put Katarina's suggestion of making their 'enemies' fight each other into some kind of practice.

[Katarina Kane]

"I mean, maybe? If he got a tip that a story was happening there. He went to our door, so I'm sure he'd pester someone else if properly motivated," Katarina said, not quite getting it.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

This is why sneaky-words were stupid. Or maybe Ryn was just bad at them.

"He will if you tell him to." she says plainly, quickly adding, "I can find the right place to lure them out." She has to tell Katarina her plan. It's stupid and reckless but that's hardly new. Sooner or later they would come after the paper-writer anyway and the only reason her sisters haven't bothered Katarina is because she's mostly been cooped up here.

"But... I want my sisters to find them. They won't on their own, not without... making a mess." Like me. "They're following you. You can protect the paper-writer until they arrive and see the bigger prey." And make a mess anyway.

[Katarina Kane]

"We bring the reporter in, as bait, and hope he gets caught in your sisters' crossfire, then?" Katarina said, resting her chin in one hand as she stared off into the middle distance.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"They won't harm him. And I wouldn't want them to. He's innocent. But they'll rip through the..." she pauses to reach for the right term because apparently it's important to catalogue the kind of rot that runs in mankind's veins. "...traffickers and he'll see it's not you cutting out the rot." And really, it's a minor deception in Ryn's mind because in a way her and her sisters' handiwork is the same.

[Katarina Kane]

"But then, there'll be questions about how I know where the traffickers are. It'd have to be an anonymous tip, or otherwise erased from his mind," Katarina mused. "I could do that, I suppose..."

"I don't know. Wouldn't your sisters feel...angry about being used like that?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"If they knew? Perhaps. But even then, are you tricking the lion by leading it to the antelope?"

[Katarina Kane]

"I would imagine your kind would hold a few more grudges than lions," Katarina pointed out. "And being in potential trouble with the police, the tabloids, my label, a ring of human traffickers and the Furies is not exactly my idea of an ideal time. It would need to be...bulletproof."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"They'll never know you're doing anything but pointing a human at the traffickers." Ryn says with her characteristic certainty.

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina nodded, mulling it over, still a bit at sea.

"Alright. I'll make the call to the journalist. And we will see what happens."

[Narrator]

It takes a couple rings for Pedro to pick up the phone. When he does he sounds friendly but vaguely distracted. Then again, that seems to kind of be his default.

"Halcónez here?"

[Katarina Kane]

Katarina did her best to disguise her voice. Which was not very good.

"Yes, uh, hello. I have a tip? On something you might be interested in for your paper?" Katarina said, looking at the notes Ryn had left on the blackboard to try to piece together the exact details.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn hops off the chair to go and tap on a spot on the map near the harbor, indicating what looks to be a section of warehouses or maybe a garage of some kind. Then she quickly scribbles 'tomorrow night' next to it. She feels reasonably certain about this. There's only so many ways out of the harbor and by now she's scouted out most of them.

On the phone Pedro responds "I'm all ears, Miss..."

[Katarina Kane]

"Yes," Katarina said, without supplying a name at this point. "I've spent some time on the waterfront recently. And there are...well, something is happening. Trucks going in and out, strange looking people guarding them. And in one of the warehouses, I saw it...I couldn't believe it, it was horrible..." she said, putting some quavering into her voice. ~ACTING~

[Narrator]

"Take your time, miss. If you witnessed a crime I do hope you called the police before you rang me." he says with a just a bit of a jovial tone to set the shaken woman at ease.

[Katarina Kane]

"Oh, I wouldn't want to risk that. I hear that they've got their fingers everywhere. No, the police wouldn't be able to help, not if they could just push things under the rug. I need someone with....with a platform, to help raise things into the light, so no one could ignore them anymore."

[Narrator]

"A week ago I might have called that a little paranoid but... I don't think you're wrong." he says and Katarina can hear the rustling of the phone receiver being juggled a little as Pedro procures a notepad on his end.

"What is it that you witnessed?"

[Katarina Kane]

"There was a truck, coming in," Katarina said, embellishing on a few of the things Ryn had told her. "Well, there are lots of trucks, actually; it's a warehouse. And maybe some of those trucks are unrelated. But...

There was a boy. He couldn't have been more than eleven, or so? In a cage. He was...he was shirtless; looked malnourished and otherwise ill-taken care of. There were more cages, too; I only got the faintest glimpse..."

[Narrator]

"Literal cages?" he asks, sounding aghast. "That's quite the crime you managed to observe there. And quite the fortunate coincidence too, considering the mysterious package I found on my desk last week. If I didn't know any better I'd think that somebody has a vested interest in shedding light on the exploits of some very influential people. People who might have made someone who's trust they betrayed rather desperate to get away from and expose those people, perhaps." he says and pauses just long enough for the silence to insinuate he's put some pieces together.

"If that were the case then it'd be very understandable for them to deny any involvement, but they should know that they can trust me with the truth."

[Katarina Kane]

"Literal cages?" he asks, sounding aghast. "That's quite the crime you managed to observe there. And quite the fortunate coincidence too, considering the mysterious package I found on my desk last week. If I didn't know any better I'd think that somebody has a vested interest in shedding light on the exploits of some very influential people. People who might have made someone who's trust they betrayed rather desperate to get away from and expose those people, perhaps." he says and pauses just long enough for the silence to insinuate he's put some pieces together.

"If that were the case then it'd be very understandable for them to deny any involvement, but they should know that they can trust me with the truth."

"Well, I'm sure that they could. But then, you already trust me implicitly, after all, even after just this one phone call."

[Narrator]

"Of course. Why wouldn't I? After all, if this shakes out it'll be quite the tip any journalist worth their salt builds their relationship with an informant on trust." The anonymous part seems to easily slip his mind. Then again, he did sound like he might suspect the identity of the mystery caller.

[Katarina Kane]

"What other help do you need from me, then -- apart from the address?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"Nothing, if you wish to remain anonymous, but I can protect my sources better if I know who they are."

Ryn, apparently able to hear his voice, rolls her eyes at that as she scribbles another note.

u shuld go wth
sisters fllwing you
keep him save frm thm

[Katarina Kane]

"I shall meet you near the warehouse at 9 PM tonight. Wear something warm.."