7050/Visitors Are Rare These Days

Visitors Are Rare These Days
Date of Scene:	23 July 2021
Location:	Shadow Manor
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	June Connor, Bella, Mando

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June Connor has posed:
    Homeless shelters? Nope, she's been banned. June is not only too high a risk for most that have any concept of what's happening in Hell's kitchen's below the radar politics, but she's also...not very well liked. She has already been kicked out for fighting in some of them before.

    She checks the card that the billionaire Oliver Queen gave her, and winces. She'd probably would get herself in different kind of hot water pissing off that guy by something stupid she does. She already attacked him once. There was that Mark guy. He's...way too good for her, if she's honest. No point in dragging someone who has their life together into the mud with her.

    And so here she is. SHe has a short cut brown military uniform shirt from some surplus store on...is that a blood stain on the left side? Her black shorts don't cover much of her legs, the fishnets that she has to join them making her look like...well, we all know what they make her look like, and given her small petite build, it's pretty clear which guys would take notice of her in it. She lets an old denim backpack dangle from her hand, and she shakes her head.

    "Place is creepy as hell," she admits. "But where else ya gonna go, June?" She glances both ways down the street, just to make sure the dangerous dark roads of Hell's Kitchen don't have eyes on her at the moment, and she moves out of the street light and into the shadows. She makes for the small space between the manor and the next property, through the weeds that are unattended that crack the concrete. Her converse pull her up the side of the stone, and into the property's boundaries.

Bella has posed:
"Manuel," Bella calls out for Mando, once again fumbling his name for something similar. Kinda. She sounds irate, and is currently in the drawing room, working over a painting of herself standing by a burning convent. "...as you can see, I'm working on very fine art, some of my best, really, and there's a presence bothering me..." Bella snarls, and turns to look at Mando, even if he hasn't quite made it to the drawing room yet, she'll be staring when he walks in. That seems quite motiviating! She's such a genius.

"Someone is bumbling about outside, and I can't have any Mormons asking if I've seen the light, and we've no room for more Encyclopedia, so...would you be a doll and go shoo them away?" The question is asked in the most polite of tones, before a violent undertone shows with the follow up, "....because I'm about to get...vexxed. Do you know the word, vexxed? I assure you, it's very, very not good. It is quite bad, actually!"

Mando has posed:
'Man.'  That's all Bella seems to retain of the poor man's name in her bastardization of it.  But she can't really be blamed can she?  She's not the only one affected by this strangeness.  In introductions, people tend to leave off syllables and usually end up on Mando, to their own amusement.  The Manuel variation must be some kind of vampiric thing, or more likely, a Bella thing.

A chubby man holding a hand duster appears, somehow seeming shorter than he is, maybe even chubbier than he is, or is that just his round face?  These slight perception shifts don't seem to matter past a moment.  "Yes Mistress.  I know the word vexed."  He carefully does not comment on the work of art, though he does regard it.  "I don't think it was the Mormons this last ti-" He shuts up and offers a strained smile in place of more words and shrugs, as if to say, 'Oops!' for going on and on, or so he thinks.

Mando shuffles off to collect a lantern and...a broom, mumbling to himself as he goes.  Dual wielding for the win.  As he works his way around, he holds the lantern up, "Hello?  You should be careful.  I have a gun and it's long," he adds as he tries to shift his grip on the broom so its silhouette more closely matches his story.

"And dangerous."

June Connor has posed:
    June is fairly quiet, but of course that blood on the shirt...well, that really is blood, even if it's not hers and is dried. She also doesn't think anyone is present at the moment in the building. She shoulders the backpack, looking up at the structure.

    "Shit is like from a bad horror flick. This is the part where I get turned into a vampire, right?" she says to herself, completely unaware of how close the stereotype may be to reality. She choses to make her way to the back of the building, over the overgrown garden trellis, and drops into the rear of the property.

    The opening of the door causes her to quietly pivot back around the corner, back flat against the brick. Her head quickly tucks out and back so she can get a view of the alerted butler, and grins. Okay.

    No real weapons, or if she misread that momentary glance, she doesn't feel concerned about the demeanor of the man. So she'll wait. The building is surely big enough that she could spend the night there even with occupants without being detected...

Bella has posed:
Dabbing her brush in some slight variation of red she just mixed, Bella meticulously splatters it about, "...and the splattering of the blood of nuns as they flail away for safety," she chuckles to herself, amused, holding her thumb to measure the perspective of the painting, before sighing. "Manderson...are they gone already?" She asks, only to realize that while Mando is outside, he can't possibly overhear her whispers, he doesn't have vampiric senses quite yet. Maybe there was a benefit to turning him after all...? But the boy wasn't ready, and she couldn't have other vampires teasing her for having such a weak protege. Oh, how she misses the times of the Vikings, so many better prospects on hand. Erik in particular was a delight. Or was it Lars, she couldn't quite recall which one she turned and which she drained. Either way, both were quite fun.

But then the scent lingers, distracting her, and she sighs, "...want something done right...can't rely on Manny," she gets up, puts her brush and palette aside and starts lesuirely down the stairs. "I'll give him a fighting chance, but if I get there and the freakin' salvation army is at my door..."

Mando has posed:
"Get in line," Mando grumbles to himself in a natural response to something more passively perceived than actually absorbed, for he still wanders out, giving a wide birth for anyone who might want to break and enter and stumble upon a vampiress who might or might not have been turned when she was already bleeding, or so Mando's theory goes.

"Um...there are no vampires here!" Mando lamely self corrects like some good-naturedly house servant.  "I mean how could there possibly.  What a silly idea..."  So convincing.  "...whoever you are."  He swings the lantern around suddenly as if to get the drop on the intruder, but it's hopeless.  No Mando's hopeless.  Shadows dance and distract, and there are just too many easy places to hide.

June Connor has posed:
    June pulls her backack off quietly, and unzips it, pulling out her climbing claws. She slips it back on inverted over her chest, and picks a dirt clot from the ground. She chunks it across to the other side of the yard, a classic distraction to try to get attention pulled away from her location. It's not creative, but it works a surprising amount of the time.

    She hooks into the wall, and starts climbing as silently as she can.

Bella has posed:
The benefit that vampiric senses allow their owners, particularly the sort who has been through the Sacred Ritual like Bella, is that little defies their perception. Even a ninja, and so while Mando struggles in trying to find the potential soruce of intrusion that so bothered his Mistress, Bella takes but one step outside into the backyard and sighs, "Mandy," she husks, facepalming for a moment before pointing her arm sharply towards the climbing June, "...what is this person sneaking about for still sneaking about...? Did I not tell you to send her away...? Well?" She's actually tapping her foot as if she's been waiting for quite sometime, rather than having simply stepped out just now.

Mando has posed:
Mando reaches up to wipe the sweat from his brow across his lantern-forearm when he catches a lucky break at the noise of the dirt clod clattering into something.  "Finally," he breathes to himself and heads out that way as if he had the sophistication of an early 2000s video game goon.  Truth be told, it has the side benefit of giving him a break from Bella.

"Maybe I'll get out of having to hold the mirror," to reflect light for Bella, naturally.  Because flashlights just won't do.  Couldn't do.  Bella's sudden appearance startles Mando and he pivots to her rapidly, sending the lantern swinging with a little squeak of the handle.  "Yes Mistress.  I-"  He looks up finally.  "Thank you."  He shuffles over and sets the lantern down.  Then he swivels the broom so he can swat at the ninja intruder.  "First werewolf markings, now this..." grumble.  He doesn't have much control over the broom and could just as easily miss as whack June.  "Down!  Down!" he issues as if she were a house pest.

June Connor has posed:
    "Dammit," June curses, looking down over her shoulder at Mando and the incredibly perceptive mistress. "Fine! Fine!" She kicks at the broom handle to bat it away, and then hops down to the ground once again, still holding the climbing claws, which could definitely be destructive weapons if they needed to be. "Fuckin' fine, stop swingin' that thing at me or I'll shove it up your ass. I'm goin,' okay?" Having been discovered, there's not much reason for her to try to push the matter. On to the next place to try to shack up for the night.

Bella has posed:
"Wait..." Bella calls out to June when she remarks that she'll go, seems she has taken a fascination with something, "those...bear claw gloves, very fancy, where did you get them?" Bella asks, as if she wasn't just upset a second ago about an intruder trying to break into her home.

For her part, Bella is a bit of a mystery, she looks very much on the young side, and yet her eyes reflect an old soul. Her mannerism, also, is not unlike anything someone who appears about her age would be doing. Weird. She definitely looks goth though, so maybe weird is par for the course.

"Introduce yourself girl, you were trying to break into my home unannounced, at least have a shred of manners."

She then shakes her head in Mando's direction, clearly not impressed with his broom fighting skills.

Mando has posed:
"Oh...oh my, sorry!"  The man seems to immediately regret his broomwielding.  The broom is kicked away so easily it is embarrassing how Mando has to suddenly try and rescue it from lurching further out of his control.  Then he steps back and off to the side as if to be out of the way, dipping his head deprecatingly toward June in the process.

Mando looks like he should be wandering around an museum of natural history or plucked straight from some musty library stacks.  In other words, he fits in quite perfectly to the weirdness around him in a way.  "Sorry Mistress," he dips his eyes at Bella's scrutinous gaze.

June Connor has posed:
    June gives a chest humph of a laugh, a rather mean and condescending smile on her face. "Oh, sure, I'll just give you my social security number while we're at it," she offers in mockery of Bella. She wiggles the claws that haven't left her hand. "Where'd I get them?" she asks, nobody usually asks her that part. Of course, most people don't spot her, either. "Surplus store down the street," she lies. They were issued by the Hand as part of her equipment. But that's a long story she doesn't want to start into with a stranger that caught her breaking into their house.

    Her pierced brow arches at Mando's extreme submission. "This like some serious BDSM shit here, huh?" she asks, trying to derail the conversation with a rather crass insertion.

Bella has posed:
Bella stares a rather deathly glower at Mando for a moment or two, says nothing else, before looking over at June. "I want nothing to do with your security, you break into places, that is opposite of security! That is..." she looks aside at Mando, "what is the word, Manuel? Theft? Robbery? Burglary? It was one of them...but definitely not security, and sneaking about! Imagine calling that social," Bella gives a loud exasperated huff, and looks over at Mando, "that idiot doesn't know who I am, and she is lying to me, that is...also vexing." Clearly the surplus store lie didn't hold.

It also becomes apparent that despite her youthful look and somewhat displayed denseness in not knowing what Social Security is, Bella is a worldly woman after all, because she certainly knows BDSM. "Are you kidding right now?" Bella gasps, traces of what might be considered French accent apparent in her voice. "Look at him, LOOK at him!" She snaps, while pointing at Mando, "you think, someone who looks like me..." she flourishes over herself with her hands, and quips, "I've been told it's a solid 9 out of 10 by..." she thinks a moment, and quips, "SlickRicBigDix23," clearly someone showed her a dating app, "and then you look at him...clearly a 2 or a 3 if you're generous, this makes sense to you? Really? BDSM? Rude!"

Mando has posed:
"What?! No!"  Mando suddenly interjects with as much liveliness of the Pillsbury Dough Boy, his voice rising in pitch a little, aghast at the insinuation.  He shuts up quickly though, looking as if he might have surprised himself a little.  "Trespassing," he provides Bella.  "If she doesn't take anything."

At Bella's words, he looks down at his own soft body, encased in a rumpled sweater vest and button up shirt.  Then he reaches up to push his glasses up the bridge of his nose and then hopelessly tries to straighten out his layers.  "I'm not a 2," he insists, kind of quietly.  But he doesn't say he isn't a 3.

June Connor has posed:
    June's offset a little by the lack of understanding regarding what a social security number is, and has a curled lip cynical glare of her own. One of disbelief. She won't correct it though, why bother.

    "Tresspassing," she says, and happens to choir the answer with Mando's, and nods at him understandingly. Yeah, he knows. She gives a sympathetic wince to Mando, "Man, she's a bitch ain't she?" June comments, not knowing that it's the only portion of his name that ever stays intact. "Like, first rate asshole," the critique is offered with a huff of a laugh. "Well, I'll leave you two to discuss body ratings," she offers, and then turns her back on both of them, making her way over to the wall she came over to get into the property as if she expects no one to stop her.

Bella has posed:
"Maybe if you were not a 2, you would hit that interloper with the broom, but did you do it? No, I don't think so!" Bella snaps at Mando, even though her argument doesn't even make sense in the context of the conversation, "for now you will have to suffer that 2 in shame! Until you improve with the broom!" But then June agrees with Mando, and Bella looks between the two back and forth, "oh, so it is Tresspassing? Well, aren't you Mr. Smartypants, Manuel, fine...you can have 3."

"Mando that little girl just called me the B word, and I decided I am offended...stop her this instance." Bella quips it out as if it is a test. The way she carries herself, it's clear she thinks she could best June no problem but she couldn't be bothered, so she sends hapless Mando, not even knowing the girl is a legit ninja.

Mando has posed:
"I couldn't choke up on my grip," Mando complains to Bella about the logistics of his meager reach and it affecting his broom swatting skills.  He looks over to June with a knowing look at her 'bitch' comment, but wisely says nothing.  "Get out while you still can," though secretly he's glad for the lack of competition.  He presses his lips together with a near frown at Bella allowing him to be a 3.

"I think that might be a crime Mistress, but you are welcome to stop her yourself if you desire."  Is that...defiance?  Mando has done way worse before in service to Bella hasn't he?  "She's going to leave Mistress.  I do not think she meant it.  Surely."

June Connor has posed:
    June grips the bars, the claws still hanging about her palms in case seh needs them. She glances over her shoulder at the pair who belong in the home, giving a neutral, but some how communicative eye contact back at Mando. Yeah. One that says 'sorry about your luck', but at the same time has a 'don't you dare come near me' vibe coming off her. She starts to climb.

Bella has posed:
"Is that so...?" Bella growls at Mando, her growl sounding alarmingly predatorial in nature, if June is even paying attention, and all of a sudden June will feel a telekinetic force pulling her harshly towards the floor. Only indicator of anything at all is Bella pointing at her, "you do not leave until you apologize! Imagine, calling me names in my own abode! I ought to flay the girl..." she...wouldn't be serious about something that medival, would she?

Mando has posed:
Seeing the situation begin to escalate, quite naturally, after his own refusal, and catching June's brief look of something like sympathy, he finally pipes up.  "Ohhhh no.  No one needs to be flaying anyone do they?  I mean what a mess."  There's a sliver of fear in the man's eyes...real fear.  He moves forward as if he might step between them, but doesn't, his path remaining stunted.

June Connor has posed:
    June was half way up when suddenly she feels the force slam her down, maintaining a sudden death grip on the bars, the rub against her palms audible as she clenches her teeth, sliding down until she's on her knees in the dirt, arms still extended up trying to fight back.
    "Fuck me. A mutant? Really?" she grits through her teeth. "Hey, you are the one who made it true," she contests. "You go shootin' the messenger." There's a defiance in her green eyes, no apology looks like it's on the verge of coming forth.

Bella has posed:
"Little. Stupid. Girl." Bella spits out each word, no shred of amusement in her words, she is beyond livid at this point. If there's one thing she won't tolerate is some waif like June daring to insult her, this kind of stuff never happened when she was a Baroness way back when...ah, the good old days, where she could have people executed for looking at her funny.

Mando, however, is probably well aware what it means when Bella gets so serious and mirthless about something. She is not considering punishing June, so much as considering ending her. She paces very slowly towards June, calm as ever, her visage showing hints of the sinister acts she's entertaining. A certain malvolence that briefly shows in a spark in her eyes. Speaking of which...her eyes are quite unnatural if one truly looks at their icicle like blue. A haunting quality to them.

"Yes, yes, you misbehaved, but not quite enough to be punished with clean up after flaying..." Bella relents at Mando's points, "...but this one...perhaps impalement?" Bella muses, clearly, she intends to consult in Mando about just what painful sort of torment to inflict on June who is simply refusing to apologize, and Bella had enough trying to coax it out of the girl.

Mando has posed:
Mando does put himself between them now, first facing June with a look of all seriousness and bulging eyes as he mouths, 'Say sorry.  LEAVE,' as he turns back to face Bella and discuss (well listen).  It's pretty fruitless of an endeavor of positioning since Bella paces forward right past him.

"Can't we make her do some of the house work before...whatever?  There's just so much.  We don't have to feed her," because he definitely plans to free her before that's an issue.  Oops!  Left that cage door free.

June Connor has posed:
    "Holy shit lady, you're a real psycho," she tries to push back, and finds that the force is gone. "Sorry, okay? Fuck, I get called a bitch twenty times a day and I don't get bent out of shape about it." Of course, she also owns the title. "I got enough people tryin' to kill me, don't need to add eccentric millionaire to the list."

Bella has posed:
Bella looks to ponder what Mando is saying, more help around the house could be good, Mando has been slacking. Nevermind that Bella tasks him with enough work for 20 people and expects him to do it in the time it would take 100 to do it. "Not a bad thought..." she muses. But then June proceeds with her language, calling her a psycho on top of it all and Bella sighs. "Maybe to a little peon like you it doesn't matter, but a Baroness? Bella The Tempest!? I'm sorry, but Bellatrix LeStrange does not get called lowly names of derision!" Bella snaps at June, and looks aside at Mando, "she is disgusting, I do not want that filthy mouth of hers anywhere near my house, be gone with her..." and to make matters all the weirder on June, Bella seems to dissipate into thin air after having spoken. Was this...all an hallucination?

Mando has posed:
Mando blinks, keeping his expression overly trained to neutral with the smallest, awkward, yet congenial grin as Bella blasts into her titles and her full name and...

Finally, he looks around after Bella disappears.  "She's going to disembowel you if you aren't careful."  Could he be serious?  Now that Bella is gone though, his frame relaxes from some of its rigidity.  "I don't care how tough you are, you don't know what you're dealing with."  Certainly not vampires!

For his part, Mando doesn't bat an eyelash at 'Bellatrix LeStrange' nor her antics.  Nothing to see here.

June Connor has posed:
    June quirks a brow, glancing around. That wasn't a smoke bomb like she would use. THe woman really did just disappear. "What. A bitch." Wait, isn't that what just got her in trouble? "That can't be her real name, that's like some weird Harry Potter shit there. She like a wizard or witch or whatever? City is so full of batshit crazy people..." she sighs. "Why do you put up with that?" she asks. "I'd be hella far away from Miss Bitchtrix Strange-ass long ago if someone treated me like that. Like you aren't even a person." She has a mild look of contempt for Mando, one of those 'man up' kind of challenges in her stare.

Mando has posed:
"I don't know if it is.  Do you think I asked her for her license?"  Mando just shakes his head.  "The rent is free.  I mean I have to do stuff, but everyone has shitty bosses right?"  He lets out a stunted lackluster laugh as if he can hear himself like anyone else in this world.

"She's not always like this."  She is.  "I...owe her," for a future favor, so to speak, but Mando doesn't get into the nature of vampires and siring.  "Why do you let people call you bitch?  Like you aren't a person?"

June Connor has posed:
    June shrugs with a sardonic grin. "Because I am," she confesses. "And because half the time if I was to fight it I'll just get my ass kicked." She shrugs. "Gotta pick my battles. Know when to hold and when to fold, right?" She turns back toward the gate. "So she was serious about the impaling part? Kinda...mideval shit there."

Mando has posed:
"Oh, well, I guess that works," Mando says with the utmost politeness, taking June at her word. "Well then you understand why I pick my own battles...She's a very capable witch," Mando says in odd jest. He doesn't outright deny that Bella might actually impale June, but he doesn't draw any extra attention to it either.

Mando has posed:
"Oh, well, I guess that works," Mando says with the utmost politeness, taking June at her word.  "Well then you understand why I pick my own battles...She's a very capable witch," Mando says in odd jest.  He doesn't outright deny that Bella might actually impale June, but he doesn't draw any extra attention to it either.

"Of course not," Mando says with an uncomfortable laugh as if everything were just fine.  The man's clothing isn't exactly in the best shape, somewhat shabby.  It would be a stretch to think he /didn't/ have darned socks.  "But I do have to get her some br-dinner."

June Connor has posed:
    June gets a slightly disbelieving look in her eye. "Well, yeah. Okay," she says. She starts to hoist her self back up over the property line, and hops down on the other side, looking back at him. "Well, have a good life," she offers. And off to find a less homocidal place to spend the night she goes.