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Maddox, right, that was the name. Aeris had never told her-- not in any official capacity, anyway. But she remembers it being called out and yelled out, often in loving disapproval. She doesn't hesitate to stare into his eyes, to try and pry as much as she can from this encounter. Who are you? She wants to ask. Who will you become? [break][break]

She takes his hand into hers and her grip is tight, testing. For a second, the whites of her teeth flash in her smile, like she is considering something mischievous, something dangerous. But she doesn't make a move and lets go of his hold, taking a step back to survey the bar's sorry state from the corner of her vision. She may drop his hand, but she continues to hold Maddox's gaze until he looks to the trap door. [break][break]
She doesn't answer his confusion. She'll let him think about that on his own. Instead, her eyes narrow onto the small trickle of blood coming from where the glass has broken Maddox's skin. [break][break]
"Renovations?" she asks, tilting her head to Zeke.[break][break]


[break][break]


[break][break]

He doesn't really know the whole story with the Ruchbahs -- at least, never from Farah herself. But Hydra rumors spread like wildfire in his circles, especially the ones about The Leviathan. And especially the story of how she had apparently waltzed into the forge and taken an eye from the Lyremaker. But Aeris and Farah had stayed friends, and as far as he knows the enchanter still has both eyes...so his guess is as good as anyone's as to what actually transpired.[break][break]
"A novice, works some shifts for me, was on the Cad," he says, finding himself dutifully explaining the situation, tone oddly deferent until he adds, with a smile, "And this is sort of after hours. Bonding, if you will."[break][break]
Infuriatingly, Zeke does not tell Maddox anything about Farah, he does not complete the other side of the introduction. Instead, he holds out a palm and summons a sharp breeze which whistles through the bar, ripping the glass shards from their spots in the woodwork until they clink harmlessly onto the ground. [break][break]
He clicks his tongue at Maddox's new wound, and he already knows Farah is going to call him out on it.[break][break]

"Apologies," he says, sighing and moving to behind the counter, from which he draws a first aid kit and lobs it at Farah.[break][break]

[break][break]


Farah catches the small box, turning only for the briefest of seconds before her eyes are on Maddox once again. She sits on the stool closest to her, propping one elbow onto the table and using her free hand to rife through the box in search of antiseptic and a bandage. [break][break]
"Mmm, Maddox, now that you've seen the trapdoor, we can't exactly let you leave alive and all that," she says, tone as dry as the Myca. [break][break]
With the appropriate materials now in her hand, she curls out her fingers as though waiting to be given something, and raises an eyebrow expectantly at other witch.
[break][break]
Zeke, from behind the counter, is of zero help: he looks caught deciding between a fit of laughter and a very loud groan. [break][break]
maddox ruchbah

[break][break]

zeke & farah are currently: not hostile[break]

zeke is using some aer magic to wiggle the shards out.[break]
farah is currently using no spells

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He does not give her his arm and she's already beginning a frown when he speaks. [break][break]
His gaze is steady, he meets her eyes. She doesn't look impressed at first, but it's more of her fighting a smile than a genuine displeasure. When he finishes his little rebellious declaration of loyalty, she actually laughs, head tossed backward, a moment of genuine delight. [break][break]

"So you are your father's son," she says, and returns her gaze to him, both elbows on the table now, the first aid kit forgotten in her lap as she leans in, a cat-like curiosity overcoming her. "Do you have a tarp, Ezekiel? Even if I don't fight this one, he might just bleed out." [break][break]
She eyes his wounds and looks annoyed by them, as though they trouble her more than his willingness to die.
[break][break]
"What is this, anyway. From the Cad takeover?"
[break][break]
She sounds displeased.

[break][break]

Farah is...something, alright. Zeke has never fully understood her, as close as they had become over the years that he had finally gotten to know the woman behind The Leviathan. She had unraveled herself in stories, just like anyone else, but always seemed in control of who she was telling what. He only got what she gave. And so his ears perk up at mentions of a story he hasn't heard ---[break][break]
"So you really did take his eye?" he asks, shooting Maddox a quick glance, a reminder that this is all in jest. He's not sure how the novice will react to the thought of someone hurting his dad. Honestly? He doesn't think they'll bat an eye, or if they do, it'll be in fascination. Still, some kind of reassurance would hopefully smooth things out.[break][break]

"Yes," Zeke admits, looking away, quick to admit to his mistakes. "My fault. Too many witches on the train and---" [break][break]

[break][break]

"What use would I have for Aeris's eye?" Farah asks, seemingly annoyed at the suggestion. She had not been the one to take a blade through a covenmate's flesh, and the memory of that insolence on the enchanter's part makes her lips press together. [break][break]
"And you were distracted with...your own injury?" she interjects, snickering slightly. The way she emphasizes the last phrase is a little too juvenile, as she teeters on the edge of revealing Zeke's secret. She still can't get the image of some random witch throwing a fist into Zeke's groin out of her mind. Maybe she's only bringing it up because Maddox's injuries upset her, but she feels the need to open that wound in particular.
[break][break]
Zeke groans. [break][break]
"Please, you're embarrassing me in front of the kids," he jokes, but he also looks...genuinely flustered. "Don't believe a word she says, Maddox."[break][break] And then, looking to Farah,
[break][break]
"Pythian whiskey?"[break][break]
maddox ruchbah

[break][break]

zeke & farah are currently: not hostile[break]

zeke & farah are currently using no spells

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Zeke's automatic, joking reply to Farah's interjection belies much more complicated feelings about what actually happened.
[break][break]
To be honest, he doesn't really need Farah to remind him of the mistakes. And to be honest, he doesn't really care that he got hit in the groin. The entire night and all the nights before he had been thinking of something else, of their previous conversation, of the way he had tried to reason with Farah and stay out of the field for just a little bit longer... And then the sight of Maddox with two holes in his body, a bloodied Papsukkal, one initiate gone missing and another covered in shrapnel.
[break][break]
He was out of practice for too long. And that had been his choice.
[break][break]
While Maddox makes the drink, Zeke searches Farah's face for something, a sign of anger or disappointment. She gives him nothing, and so he sighs and realizes he'll have to be the one to humor Maddox.
[break][break]
"Emerson?" he asks. The war family? "That might be right. It was a Cerb, either way. The kid caught me off guard, landed a hit. In the worst way -- nearly killed him for it, but that would've been a different mess altogether..."
[break][break]
His voice trails off. His eyes search for Farah's...




"It was a success," she says, rolling her eyes and finally giving up her game to unveil her true feelings about the previous mission. She's upset about the young ones getting hurt, sure. But they had gotten their objective, and she's glad there had been no Cerberus killings, accidental or otherwise. And she had gotten what she had gambled for by assigning Zeke the mission: the Pazuzu was now back in play. [break][break]

She sets the first aid kit onto the table and waits for her drink to be brought to her, scrutinizing Maddox's movements, the way he walks and moves and drags his bandages and blood along with him. Ruchbah.[break][break]
Even the other name he mentions --- Emerson --- is a bloody one. How much has this one grown up with stories of war and loyalty? Of all the people in the world, Farah knows exactly what it means to become a name, to embody something. When Maddox hands her a drink, her gaze narrows once again at the sight of his bleeding arm. [break][break]
She taps the first aid box set on the table before them with an index finger, impatient. [break][break]
"Tell me, Maddox Ruchbah, what makes you so eager to die?" she asks. Her tone is so bland it almost makes the question sound mundane, open to interpretation. What she means to ask, of course, is, why in a time of peace would you choose to stand against the world? [break][break]
This was a question she had never asked his father, or any of the old guard for that matter-- they were hers to begin with; they belonged to the war because they had been born from it --- neither she nor they had the luxury to choose. But Maddox. And that Le girl.
[break][break]
Now, she knew that Hydra was not something you could ever really choose. She knew what happened to traitors and even those that sought a simple way out -- she had made that call, over and over again. But was that all?
[break][break]
She stares into his eyes, the same grey ones from years ago, and wonders, is it all just the same?
[break][break]
maddox ruchbah

[break][break]

zeke & farah are currently: not hostile[break]

zeke & farah are currently using no spells

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Farah's dismissive labeling of everything as a success makes another knot twist in Zeke's stomach.
[break][break]
That wasn't the same tune that she had been singing days ago, where she had been tight-lipped about the operation's results, refusing to let the different teams in play know about the success of the other. Had something changed, then, on the field? Had something finally gave way?
[break][break]
He realizes, too late or perhaps not at all or perhaps only vaguely in the corners of his mind, that this is Farah's design. She had told him long ago that if he wasn't interested in the field, then he could be her source of whispers and stay behind the bar The Blind Monkey for as long as he liked. It seemed, at the time, an equivalent exchange. Merciful, almost.
[break][break]
But now he had gotten a taste for it again, the electricity in his veins, and suddenly the clean divide between his work and Hydra's larger operations feels like a circuit he needs to break.
[break][break]
His body is moving mindlessly, sweeping off the old glass shards and listening, quietly, at their conversation.




It seems he doesn't get her impatient tapping on the box -- she wanted him to take the gauze and stop his blood from dripping out. But how do you explain the gravity of a wound to someone who has been bleeding his entire life? [break][break]
"Hmm," Farah says, as though considering his words, learning something from them. She finishes the whiskey two long, deliberate gulps.[break][break]
At first, she thinks, maybe he was just joking. Maybe she had merely imagined the defiance in his eyes, maybe she had seen Aeris where there was just Maddox. But then he calls it an occupational hazard, and the smallest glimmer of a smile escapes her lips. [break][break]
"I would hope not," she says, feigning offense at his words. She slides off the stool, one of her hands pushing the first aid box forward even as she steps onto the floor of the bar. "Clean yourself up, Maddox. Don't make me ask twice."[break][break]
Farah then turns to Zeke. [break][break]
"Tiur gave the all-clear from Myca last night. The engineers are out. We can start phase two."
[break][break]
She's smiling as she says this, of course. This had been what she had been holding out for-- a confirmation that everything was okay, that their reckless plan wasn't for nothing. Phase two was the easy part.
[break][break]
"That's all I had for today," she says to Zeke before turning to Maddox and giving him another smile, this one much more straightforward than the last. "Wouldn't want to interrupt your little bonding, would I?"
[break][break]
And then she walks up the staircase and out of the door -- the real door, leaving the trapdoor she had emerged from to hang open in the middle of the bar.[break][break]




When Farah turns to her, Zeke looks curious and a little wary-- but at her words, his jaw slackens and the guilt and anxiety that he had been hiding so well leaves his body. Sometimes, you can only know how much someone is holding in when you knock it out of them -- and the confused but delightest smile that Farah's news brings to his face speaks for itself.[break][break]
He can only chuckle as she leaves, shaking his head at the ground and picking up the glass pieces the earlier demostration had lef thim to deal with.[break][break]
He dumps the glass in the trashcan, dusts his hands, and says, conversationally:[break][break]
"So...that was Farah."[break][break]
Better a late introduction than not, right?

[break][break]
maddox ruchbah

[break][break]

zeke & farah are currently: not hostile[break]

farah has exited[break]
zeke is currently using: no spells

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"Shh, that's classified," Zeke says, with a wave of his hand. It's a joke between them of course, one that he has used against Maddox's curiosities a million times before. It feels a little out of place on a night like tonight, where so many secrets and stories have been shared between the two of them for the first time. But the chiding phrase seems to have matured into an inside joke, a testament to the storm they've now weathered together.[break][break]
Maddox's scramble with the gauze only gives Zeke more to snicker at. His questions are all valid ones, Zeke thinks, but there's only one he's sure he can answer.
[break][break]
"Farah..."
[break][break]
He quirks up an eyebrow. A dramatic pause, of course. Hearing so many stories has turned a Zeke into a master of the craft, and he is relishing in this one. He has explained to many an initiate before Maddox who Farah is, he has watched their eyes go wide with disbelief. It's not a secret that she leads Hydra, really, not anymore. It's just one of her ongoing careless miscommunications, an old habit of secrecy she hasn't bothered to rectify.
[break][break]
"also known as--"
[break][break]
But he doesn't mind this habit of hers, he supposes. At least, it makes for an interesting story to tell.

[break][break]
"--- the Leviathan."
[break][break]
A dramatic if half-hearted flourish of his arms completes the gesture, and Zeke looks to Maddox with twinkling eyes.
[break][break]
"The Leviathan," of course, is a name as old as Hydra itself. It was a sobriquet, one of the terrifying titles given to champions as a mark of their victory or their devastation. It was the name given once given to the leader of Hydra, and has since remained the title of the elusive, shadowy position for centuries. Within Hydra, it is a codename, like any other, except unlike Pazuzu or Apollo, this one rings out with the weight of just about everyone knowing just exactly who it belongs to. The head of Hydra.
[break][break]
maddox ruchbah

[break][break]

zeke is currently: not hostile[break]

zeke is currently using: no spells

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Zeke laughs, unable to help himself, but also seeing a bit of himself in Maddox's dumbfounded response.[break][break]
For him, the reveal had been all the stranger and more significant: he had built the Blind Monkey himself on the orders of the mysterious Leviathan, and when he had seen a strange girl walk through their agreed-upon trapdoor a decade or so ago, he had tried to attack her for fear that someone else had found out.
[break][break]
"Wh-" a hint of surprise slips through when Maddox lobs a bandage in his direction, but it hits his shoulder and falls to the floor, and Zeke snickers and picks it off the ground.
[break][break]
"Oh, you're 100% right," he says, his sarcasm crystal clear, especially in contrast with Farah's drier, more confusing tone. "Ever asked yourself why I never let you take the closing shift? Mmhmm."
[break][break]
Zeke is smiling, staring at the same trapdoor that Maddox is when he frowns at the bandage in his hand, as if just remembering it is there. Well. He has to reclaim some kind of authority over his house now that Farah is gone. He tosses the bandage back at Maddox.
[break][break]
"Since you're so determined to help out, though," he says, teasing Maddox for his earlier mopiness (or maybe just for the embarrassment with the broom?) "I have a bucket or three of dishware that needs to be washed, and the rags are waiting to be put on the cycle."
[break][break]
As he speaks, he walks towards the trapdoor and pushes it down. The wood paneling immediately blends in with the rest of the surroundings, as if by magic. It's hard to imagine there was ever a door there in the first place. Long and leisurely strides lead him to the rack next, from where he pulls off a nondescript winter coat.
[break][break]
Before he leaves, Zeke pulls on the small black necklace around his neck, pulling the thin thread over his head to reveal a small brass key strung around it. He outstretches his hand to Maddox.
[break][break]
"First closing lessons: make sure everything is clean and ready for the openers, make sure no-one's set up any observation spells, secure the perimeter, have a report ready for Farah, lock everything before you leave and...try to enjoy the peace and quiet." His smile has only the vaguest traces of sympathy as he adds, "It never lasts."
[break][break]
maddox ruchbah

[break][break]

zeke has left. this npc thread is now over. [break]
you may post an optional reaction post. your character has received:[break]
+4 MP and:[break][break]