7644/The Underworld Has Many Facets

The Underworld Has Many Facets
Date of Scene:	01 September 2021
Location:	Gotham - Bar and Girl
Synopsis:	Selene andSatana meet up and discuss an unholy alliance, of sorts.
Cast of Characters:	Satana Hellstrom, Selene Corvinus

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Satana Hellstrom has posed:
The invitation comes in a strange way. A normal human, by the smell, walking straight up to Selene's observation post--an abandoned building with a corner apartment that commanded a strategic view--and stopping in the middle of the street, looking straight up at where Selene was concealed in shadows. The rain doesn't bother him. He just stands and stares for one minute, almost on the dot, before speaking up.

"Happy Hetairai. 1AM. Come alone."

The man then bends his head back and to the right, adding, "This messenger is my gift to you should you choose to accept it."

Still standing in the middle of the street, head bent, throat exposed, the messenger waits.

Selene Corvinus has posed:
Selene observed this and seemed rather guarded about it all. She had her Death Dealers on standby and had ordered several of them to begin a patrol around her area, but to stay back, stay in the shadows. Rain was common in this part of the country and Selene wasn't really bothered by it. With her long black jacket on she set out and within a few moments she appeared, in front of the offered human.

With her hands in her pockets, the elder Vampire walks the distance between them and stops before the Human. She eyes them cautiously for a moment before she raises her chin and speaks. "You're not needed." She tells them grimly. "Go home."

She turns then and, accepting the location given she'll go to where the invitation leads her...

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
The Happy Hetairai is as low a place as you can find in a city not known for high places. It calls itself, to give its full name, The Happy Hetairai Bar and Girl. (Yes, not grill.) It's in a seedy neighbourhood and manages to look even more seedy. The inside is poorly lit, likely to conceal the black mould that Selene's nose can pick out among the stench of low quality booze, stale sweat, and other, less savoury, human bodily secretions.

The stripper on the stage is a redhead with her hair done long and wavy and falling uncontrolled around her shoulders but for two artfully arranged bits at the bangs raised up in a pair of horn-like shapes. She is doing some kind of raw animal dance with unusual grace and style for the kind of place this is, but, *sigh*, has fallen into the cliche of religion-baiting: aside from the inevitable trio of poles there's also an apple suspended from the ceiling by a barely-visible thread and a snake.

Wait. The snake. It's the toxic variety...

"Ah, you are the one the mistress has invited are you not?" one of the scantily-clad servers asks, approaching Selene. "She has asked that you wait in that booth over there..." Her finger juts out to a corner booth out of sight of the immediate entrance, wreathed in shadows in a bar already not very well-lit. "...and she will join you shortly."

Guiding Selene to the booth, the server prepares to take orders as the dancer's act ends with the snake suddenly opening its maw wide, fangs glinting with venom drops, as it strikes ...

...and the lights go out before the fangs land. There's a few moments' pandemonium before the lights come back on. The dancer is nowhere to be seen, though what few clothes she had taken off still litter the stage, and the apple still hangs. The announcer's mic clicks on. "And put your hands together for the Daughter of Satan, folks! Best thing is she doesn't want pay!"

"This is because," a woman's thrilling contralto says from just out of view of the booth, which to most people would come as a shock, though Selene would have heard her rapid approach in the dark and been aware of her presence, "I do it out of love, not for something as tawdry as money."

The stripper, still stripped, wearing nothing but her snake, slips into the seat opposite Selene.

"I'm glad you could come on such short notice."

Black eyes with red highlights stare at Selene appraisingly.

"We have so much to discuss. I am Satana Hellstrom. You've heard of me."

It's not a question.

The fang marks in the woman's neck call attention to how her act ended. And what she's still wearing.

Selene Corvinus has posed:
Selene still had a bit of water droplets coming off of her as she entered the club, but the ride over had been after the rain had stopped. She'd still look a bit of a mess, even if a natural beauty, and it mattered nothing to her. She let her brown eyes roam the familiar location... not becasue she'd been here before... but because these places generally run the same shtick. This one had an interesting flaire to its presentation though as Selene noticed the style of the performer on stage.

But, the woman who greeted her took Selene's attention and guided her to the secluded booth to wait. "Thank you." Selene said, without ordering a drink. Instead she just slipped in to the seat and let her eyes take in the atmosphere, her other senses absorbing the rest of the ambience....

When the show ended, she caught the last few moments, then sat back as the lights went out.... only to come back on just a few 'heart beats' later.

Selene's eyes go to the source of the voice and she regards the woman who joins her. "You certainly don't hold back with your entertainment." The European Vampire says in her naturally husky hued voice. "I would consider it an honor to have been here for the show, but I missed more than half of it, I suppose." She shows a faint smirk then.

"I have, and I'm Selene, which you likely know. So we're off to a swift start to this." She states then, showing hints of a more prominent smile, but it fades rather quickly. "Your messenger was spared, by the way. My people have moved passed the need for such things." How have they accomplished that? She hasn't yet said!

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Pity," Satana says with a wry face. "Now I will have to find another way for him to earn his eternal reward. He displeased me greatly. He needs to get back in my good graces if he wishes to advance."

Her eyes stray to the stage where a more conventional dancer follows an act impossible to follow.

"I'd intended to be completed before your arrival," she says conversationally, "but I got lost in the fallen souls. Their adulation and sin is so enticing. It's a wonder I didn't feed on them all."

The eyes sweep back to Selene. "But if you're interested in such a show, I'll invite you to the next time I get the urge to perform one. It happens quite often, but unpredictably." Her lips quirk into an amused smile. "Shall we exchange phone numbers then or should I send messengers to tempt you?" The eyes start to bore holes into Selene's. "You still feel it, don't you? The hunger? For fresh, warm, living blood? Why don't you give in when it's gifted you?"

Selene Corvinus has posed:
Another glance is given to the stage before the brown eyes of the Vampire look back to the woman across from her. She hears the comments, question and just gently shakes her head from side to side. "Some in my Coven probably would. But it goes against what our endeavors in all of this are for..." She trails off there a moment before re-centering her stare on Satana's. "Separation. Isolation. We want to cut ourselves off from society. Once this threat from the Lycans has been dealt with, humans-- and feeding upon them --won't be an option. There-by... letting go of it now, will make that transition easier in the time yet to come."

Her hand comes up and she places a simple black card on the table that has simple white text upon it, her contact information. "No offerings necessary. If you'd like a meeting with me in the future, you need but this..." She slides the card across the table with her middle two fingertips.

She gives a quick look about their area. "So this is one of your locations then?" She return questions.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Oh, good," Satana purrs as she reaches across for the card and sets it to one side, not having a place to store such at the moment. "That goal brings up the reason for my little invitation. And answers my troubled mind. You see, I have plans myself and sometimes the little bits of gunplay that pop up here and there with your pet dogs--you really do need to keep those on a leash!--call attention to places and things I'd rather not have attention drawn to, if you get my drift.

Her finger circles to indicate their current locale. "This isn't exactly 'my place'. It's a place I hunt at for a particular sort of Fallen: the adulterer. The philanderer. The hypocrite who judges the sins of others while partaking enthusiastically thereof." She licks her lips with a predator's smile. "Those are the souls that taste best, you see. The ones I seek. The ones I devour. The ones whose remnant wisps I shit into Hell as my servants."

A slightly miffed expression crosses her face.

"I mean aside from the ones I tithe to my father."

She sounded for a moment EXACTLY like a teenager railing against her parents' rules.

"But if your goal is to withdraw once your little tiff is over with," she continues, "I think there's room for ... cooperation."

Selene Corvinus has posed:
Selene's right hand rests on the table then with her left still in her lap on the booth where she's seated. She eyes Satana throughout most of what she replies with, only moving her brown eyed gaze about a little again when the other does the finger swirl. She puts her stare back upon Satana then when she speaks of the cooperation they could mutually benefit from.

Selene dips her chin very slightly once at that. "I would like that." She says to her. "My people would like that too, I believe." She adds in her soft voice, accented with many different European regions touching the syllables.

"I'll be honest, what I've heard of what you do... has seemed embelleshed some, but perhaps I'm a bit naive toward your type of business. Naivety aside, I'm curious, admittedly, for the details there-in. I think what I do is rather straight forward, but you seem..." And again she gives a glance about, to the stage and then back to Satana. "Nuanced, with arguably greater consequences at play." She shows the hint of a smile then. "After all, when I put a Lycan down, its possible their soul may be bannished to a realm of flowers and happiness. I imagine you send yours all to the same, hot, place."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"I get a lot of your puppies, actually," Satana says, leaning forward. "And a few of yours too," she adds. "Mostly in trade. You're not in my domain, so I tend to get the pimps. The philanderers. The hypocrites. The whores. But my ... colleagues, let's call them ..." The disdainful distaste dripping from 'colleagues' hints at her real view. "... sometimes have need for the ones I rule over and we swap. I hear stories."

She pauses, then lights up like a pinball machine that just scored the million point shot.

"I've also got Jim Morrison. So I can do bar mitzvahs, dinner parties, and such. We put on a HELL of a show!"

Lounging back now in her seat, relaxed, one foot up on the bench next to her, knee poking over the edge of the table to mid-shin, the demon queen smiles more genuinely at Selene. "But make no mistake, honey, I'm a demoness. A Lord of Hell, albeit not top-tier. Yet." Her eyes spark up a red glow. "I'm Daddy's little girl, don't you see? People attach all kinds of motivations to me. They're mostly wrong. I don't do things for the 'cause of eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil!'. That's stupid comic book shit. But nor do I do it to punish those who've done wrong in the sight of the Whoreson Upstairs." She manages to somehow capitalize the blasphemous title in speech. "I pick the ones I pick because of the way I'm built, the way I'm taught, the things I enjoy doing, and the fact that they taste best. Innocent souls are like Wonder Bread: vaguely nutritious but so bland as to be nothing. I enjoy the texture of a soul destined for Hell. The savoury flavours slipping through me. Collecting inside of me. That screaming despair as they realize they've got only themselves to blame for where they're going."

Satana closes her eyes and shudders.

"Even the thought of it, the memory of it, brings me close to the edge."

Her eyes flick over to one of the customers loudly, drunkenly braying at the girl on stage.

"I may need to take a break in a moment if 'down there' doesn't settle down."

Eyes back on Selene. "Where were we? Oh, right. Cooperation. I've been carefully building up a following loyal to me. Gotham and Bludhaven mostly, though some starting up in New York. Your little war is attracting the wrong kind of attention of the wrong kind of people. So I want it to end. I think the easiest way to make it end is to help one side or the other. And the problem is the puppies? They just always want to cause trouble. You ... you want to isolate. Vanish. So I think I'll help you along. What kind of assistance do you need?"

Selene Corvinus has posed:
Throughout Satana talking about the souls, and how much she enjoys the worst of the worst of them, for flavor and fun of just how bad a soul can get, the Vampire just shows a small smile... but one that seems to be amused by this. "Well." She says. "I don't know where my soul lies, but after nearly six and a half centuries, I'm rather sure one day you'll be catching mine falling to that very, tainted, place."

Whether that's true or not is up for debate. Selene believes she's a Vampire and has done heinous things, but she's also one of the most virtuous of her kind... so where she falls is a curious conversation for judges of Souls to have.

She glances to the irate customer who might be digging his own grave, before looking back to Satana. "By all means, take care of your employees." She softly replies.

But before Satana can choose to do just that, Selene nods once more, once again just once. "What I need in this area are more contacts, more eyes... that can tell my people where we might find the 'puppies'. They came here looking to recruit mutants and metas in to their packs, and though they've succeeded at this a bit... I would hope to stop it from worsening. Fighting a Lycan is one thing, but fighting one that ... can... 'throw fire balls' or 'walk through walls' is complicating things beyond simple words..." And she says that last part with a clear measure of frustration in her voice.

Bus is that all the Vampires would want out of a working relationship?

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"Oh, honey, your soul is long gone," Satana says regretfully. "You're not in my reach nor in reach of any of my kind. I don't know where you go when you turn, but you're out of my realm."

She reaches across to cover Selene's hand. "Good news from that, though. It means if you and I decide to have good times together, I won't be feeding. I can't. So it'll be all about the pleasure."

Lascivious grin and slow lick of her lips.

"But business before pleasure," she continues, more businesslike, but keeping her hand on Selene's. "I haven't got eyes on the puppies and mutants. Yet. But you tell me this is a thing and I'll start getting eyes on them. I've got some nice people in my little circle. Lowlives and investment bankers (though I risk repeating myself). Crooked cops and politicians. All these people who want a taste of me or of the power I can bring them. And they'll do anything to make me pleased. So I'll tell them to keep an eye out for your puppies' recruiters and either dust 'em myself or pass along the info to you."

Her free hand pats the card she'd set aside on the table.

"We can talk remuneration later if you prefer."

Selene Corvinus has posed:
Selene has a cold stare, but when Satana touches her hand she finds out that the chill extends to her skin as well. Chill, in so far as room temperature. She does offer a light hearted smirk at the first bit before exhaling lightly. "Well, at least I know the answer to my centuries old question about my soul's fate..." She grimly responds before glancing away again.

She turns her brown eyes back to Satana to stare evenly upon her again while her hand is motionless upon the table.

"What allies I have made for my Coven here in the States have been attacked when their association with me has been discovered. This... could happen to your people, if they're not careful. I get the sense that you can quite... easily protect yourself, but you might have some you care for who will get targeted to send a message to you. The Lycans are insidious and will strike at whatever weaknesses they can find in your armor. It's... why associations with my people are limited, to say the least. We try to contain this feud, as best as we're able to. But yes... this isn't my home, and the Lycans that are being sired here are quickly gaining a 'homefield advantage' as they say...."

She hints another faint smile then. "So, don't say I didn't warn you about being seen around me."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"You think I CARE about these people!?" Satana asks, genuinely astonished. "Darling, I'm a demon. Look it up. Hell, I'm stealing these people from Daddy just to piss him off. They're tools. They're playthings. They're ... farm animals. I've got all eternity to play with. I lose a few cultists and it pisses me off a bit, but care? That's just not a thing with me."

The hand withdraws.

"I'm kind of hoping they come straight at me at least once. I want to show them what the fires of Hell feel like. The pain and horror in their faces will make up for the fact I can't feed from them." Beat. "Same problem as you: their souls have long been forfeit and are out of my reach."

Selene Corvinus has posed:
Selene's eyes remain on Satana as she draws her hand back, the hand just stays right there where it was, unmoving, she just stares... with curiosity or something more perhaps. What the other says to her has her intrigued though, and that much is clear considering her attention is unwavering.

"Well." Selene says to this information given. "That will certainly make their tactics harder to inflict upon you." She quietly responds.

Her eyes go back to that rowdy patron to see if they've calmed down yet before she looks back upon the other.

. "Perhaps I'll reach out to you when I corner another sect, if you're interested in witnessing how we handle them." And vice versa for that matter!
Selene huffs a little short exhale of a laugh then. "I'm surprised they haven't come to you already to set a similar deal up with you, against us..." She says, maybe testing some waters of reaction there for the Hell of it.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
"I had my meeting with them--let's just use the code name Andy, shall we?--last week," Satana says blithely. "They were much easier to find than you; you're much more professional in your conduct," she adds with a warm wink. "Their representative didn't show me much respect. They're probably still looking for him, wondering what happened."

The eyes suddenly burst into a red as bright as coal in a blast furnace, though nothing else changes physically.

"They weren't careful. They saw my frivolous, frail shell and thought that was the real me. You're different. Smarter. More reserved. I'd much rather work with you."

The eyes fade rapidly over that last sentence and the naked, snake-clad woman sits there once more, looking for all the world like what she just called herself: Frivolous. Frail.

"You're smart enough to look past what you see. I like that. And the fact that you're ice cold? Honestly, babe, that's got me thinking such thoughts..."

Back to winking and coyness.

"I'll be in touch. I wouldn't mind seeing one of your ops as an onlooker if you don't mind. I mean, some of the puppies look really strong and rough. I like watching that kind move. And like it better when your kind winds up icing them anyway."

Selene Corvinus has posed:
Selene once more shows a hint of a smile at the other, a clear indication of amusement crossing her mind at Satana's words, behavior and entirety that she puts on display. "That is very good for me and mine." She replies in the end. "It is rare that we reach out to others, not of our ilk, as I've eluded to... but you seemed as though you might be the understanding type. I'm glad to find out that hunch has been confirmed."

Another glance is given to the stage before Selene looks back to the demon in her more human form. "I think I'll stay for a bit, have a drink, before I head out. If that's all right?" She says and asks that in her continued chilled-fashion, her hand only just now retreating back to rest with the other beneath the table.