The Many Tales of Blackjack: Spinning Webs

Glimpse of Fortune's Favor
Songs of Distant Arcadia
Splendor of the Envoy's Protection

"Real interesting. You know how to pick them." Heather said, grinning. One suspected that the fetch was not exactly hearing every word that Erin was telling her. Sasha was, on the whole, a very, very bad man, Erin was right in this. But in that peculiar transmutation that occurs in the minds of some young women, 'bad' turned into 'interesting' and from there into 'attractive'. Such a change was happening in Heather's head right now. "Regular ice-sculpture from the sounds of it, look-but-don't-touch. Looks drop-dead gorgeous, though."

"Awesome! Wing-girl!" Heather said, utterly and thoroughly misinterpreting what Erin had in mind. She rubbed her hands together, looking for all the world like a mischievous faun-girl or nymph from some woodland tale. "What's the plan?"

Heather stared ahead, trying to do the thing with the fate of the world that Erin did, and completely and utterly failing to the many strands of destiny heading off into the distance. But, she didn't need them. She thought about Sasha, and what she would say to him, and she focused on the emotion that bubbled up in her breast when she saw him, and that was enough. There was honey on her tongue now, and an intoxicating nectar it was.

"Yeah, don't touch," Erin repeated, beginning to have some misgivings about certain aspects of the bargain she'd struck with Aleksander. She had a feeling Heather was going to try and touch. "He'll act pleasant enough, but be careful believing anything he says. Don't think you have any kind of control over him."

"Yes...?" Erin agreed, looking at her wings. Somewhere in here was an epic miscommunication, that wasn't going to be discovered until it was too late.

"I have no idea. I'm bad at this sort of thing. Let's just catch him between the pair of us and wing it." Erin picked up a bottle of Italian Soda and some glasses, slipping out of the kitchen to where Sasha was lingering. She came around and stood on his left side, leaving plenty of room for Heather on his right. "How are you doing, Sasha?" she asked, as she idly poured the fizzy blood orange juice for everyone. "Everything is going well?"

Behind his back, Erin made a gesture toward Heather, in a "watch this" fashion. Though the interests closer to the surface were the ones more likely to interest Heather, Erin could guess them already, and thus dug deeper.

Cupids Eye (+pledge with subject -desire hidden even from self)

"Pretty well." Sasha said, glancing at Erin, then at Heather, and then back at his lepidopteran employer. She was up to something, the only question was what. The Russian accepted the drink without comment, tilting his head to wonder just why Erin's dressed to kill. "Are we expecting Seryogu too?"

"Just us girls here." Whim said, burying her face in her orange juice because quite honestly there was no other way to keep from snickering at this vision. Heather's expression was perfectly eloquent as to what she had in mind, and the goth-girl felt like giving her a hand. She put her hands over the glass, fingertips interlaced in a rote mudra as she glanced at Sasha and mumbled the spell under her breath. "You know?"

"I do." Sasha said, frowning as he crossed his legs and looked at the third member of the little group. Was it Sasha's imagination, or was it warm in the room?"

"So, who are you?" Heather said, taking this as her cue to sit down next to Whim, opposite Sasha. She imitated the green-haired girl's gesture, but there was a different method to Heather's madness. A predator, was Sasha? Well, Heather knew that sort, and they liked to go for the weakest member of the herd. She leaned forward, a breathless sort of gesture, and grinned at Sasha. "I'm sorry, I'm just really knew at this, and everyone I meet is all sorts of interesting..."

It was a devastating salvo. Heather was beautiful now as well, and it was a different sort of beauty from Erin's. Less delicate, less joyful, but more a kind of vigorous, athletic grace. You could imagine Heather frolicking in a forest stream, or climbing a mountain, the beauty of nature at its finest.

"I'll have to try not to bore you." Sasha said, smiling, a more unguarded expression than Erin was used to seeing on him. "Though I'm just a man, nothing too special here. My name's Aleksander, though you can call me Sasha." He winked. "Easier on the tongue. And you are...?"

"Heather." She said, casting an aside glance at Erin. Hook, Line, and Sinker.

Omen
Font of Inspiration
Font of Inspiration

"Good, good," Erin replied to his health. "Good to hear. No zaichonok today, Sasha, I cannot drag him away from his work all the time. Well. Maybe I could, actually." She chuckled at the odd state of her finances. "Make him a little kept bunny, eh? No, that would be no good."

"Don't let Sasha fool you, though. He's very interesting," Erin said idly, sipping her orange soda. "Very special. Certainly not boring. And a man of charity. How is your work going, Sasha? I always like to hear about it." Another sip. "You will be nice to Heather, won't you? I think she'll be hanging around here a lot more."

Cupids Eye (Hidden from Self)
composure+empathy+2

"For some reason, Moth here is always suspicious of me." Sasha said with dignity. "As though I have ever been anything but the perfect gentlemen, at least when she wanted me to be."

"Have there been times when you weren't a gentleman?" Heather said, raising an eyebrow and swallowing a giggle when Whim looked at her.

"On occasion, but whatever Moth thinks, I'm really a very nice person. Honest." Sasha said, smiling as he sipped his juice. He managed to making juice-drinking look suave, which was no mean feat. "I'm a private detective by trade, I've a license and everything. I do some pro bono work in cases where the police haven't done their job as well as could be, especially for clients who are too poor to pay in the first place. I mostly work with poverty groups."

"That is interesting." Heather said, impressed in spite of herself. Whim was looking at Erin, in the meantime. Your doing? Her look said. Heather continued, however, oblivious to the interplay. "I just do surveys and research and stuff, it's the much-less-cool version of that, I guess?"

"It has its moments, but I like the Cat's Cradle more than most of the bars I have to visit for work." Sasha said, smiling down at Heather. "And the company is much better."

"Of course, Sasha. You are a very nice person, at least when I want you to be," Erin replied, keeping his words and mangling the sentiment. She put the glass to her lips but failed to drink, zoning out, her mind caught up in recalling his sins, her imagination there to fill in the graphic details. Perhaps out of charity, she also thought of things he had lost, to fall to such depths. Not for the first time, she pondered what he would lose again, if something happened to her. What she did here was no charity, she supposed to herself. It made her feel slightly better about it.

She looked at Whim, and in answer to the silent question, just smiled.

"Sasha helps me out sometimes, but mostly, he's just a good friend," Erin said, and wished she was lying, just a little. "Awfully sweet of you to like the place, Sasha. Would you like something to eat? There are some meringues cooling." She gave Aleksander a perfect pixie grin.

"It is hard to say no to meringues." Sasha said, smiling back at Erin. It was a restrained sort of smile, about half-truthful and half-suspicious. Erin was up to something, and her cheeriness put Sasha's guard up. In a strange sort of way, Erin and Sasha had a reciprocal relationship of caution and care around one another, even if it was rarely visible. "Or to anything else in the shop." Sasha said, glancing at Heather in such a way that inclined one to add a silent 'Or anyone' to the end of that statement.

"I'd like some too!" Heather piped up, imitating Erin's perfect pixie grin. She caught that little bit of subtext, and considered it a win for her side. It was at times like these that she looked most like Erin, the changeling and her fetch sporting identical, mischievous expressions.

Sasha frowned for a moment, even as Whim buried her face in the juice to keep from snickering. The Russian glanced at Erin, then at Heather, and then back at the changeling. His was an eye practiced to separating out disguises, and much the same was required here. Setting aside the obvious differences such as horns and wings, there was a difference of some inches in height, and Heather had a slightly longer face. The hair was also different, but when you ignored that sort of thing, the resemblance was unmistakeable.

"Oh good." Sasha said at length, his voice dry and amused. "They're multiplying. Cousin of yours, Moth?"

"Sure," Erin replied, in a way that likely just raised more questions. The grin never faded.

"Anything else in the shop? If you're not careful, you'll wreck that statuesque figure of yours," she teased, sticking her tongue out at him slightly. "All of you had better watch out." With that, she stood up and got the meringues anyway. It was an empty threat, really, given she doubted anything would ever show on any of their figures. It was really unfair, when you thought about it. She put a few meringues in a dish, then a few more, since they were so light that you could hardly be satisfied with just one.

Eventually, all the meringues ended up on the table between the four of them.