[Adrijana Evgeniya]

The Atomic Lounge was a bar with a Fallout aesthetic. Well, it wasn't explicitly Fallout, they probably hadn't paid any licensing fees, but that was clearly the look they were going for. They succeeded, too. The aesthetic was one of the things Adri appreciated about the bar and a major reason why she had picked it for the beginning of the night’s business.
Though Adri didn’t think about it, the choice of location was fitting. In a place renowned for its aesthetics, a matter of aesthetics would be resolved. The issue was one Sybil Massara, con artist and grifter who had made the itsy bitsy mistake of going around dressed as a Spade without permission. This was big deal to the Princess of Spades. Your brand was everything in the gang business. You needed reputation in order to get respect and you needed respect in order to get anything done. The use of gang colors and symbolism had to be enforced for the same reason that trademark claims had to be enforced: letting someone else have them threatened to let your reputation get out of your control, and who knew what would happen if someone else thought they could do anything they wanted with the Spade name. No, no, the only thing to do was to see that the inappropriate trademark use was stopped immediately, and, if necessary, painfully.

Adri wasn’t the type to think in terms of patents and trademarks, however. To her, the issue was that the Spade mark was THEIRS and that nobody else could have it. It was that simple. Also, having the opportunity to do something that might help her sister out excited her. She didn’t want to simply be a load on her sister, yet her instability made it hard to help much. This was one task she could succeed at, though. Making someone just a little bit scared.

Sybil had been approached with a job offer. Just a bit of freelance work, well-paid. She was to get the details at the Atomic Lounge tonight, only she would be getting something else instead. There was one other reason Adri had chosen this bar for the meeting. The bartender was the sort who could be persuaded to slip Sybil a bit of Ambien when she ordered something. If Sybil understood her situation, that wouldn’t be necessary, but if she showed any resistance, she might get more than she bargained for.

Adri rather hoped she resisted.

There was Sybil at the agreed upon table. There were the hired help covered the doors. And there was Adri, walking up to the table where Sybil was sitting. Adri wore black, knee-high boots and a black dress. The dress was high at the bottom and low at the top and lower still on the back. Adri had picked it because it looked nice and because it showed off several Spade tattoos. Her hair was in two bunches and her smile was wide and gleeful beneath dead eyes.

She slid into the seat across from Sybil with the grace of a dancer. “Hi Sybil Massara!” she said. “You’ve been going around wearing spades when you’re not a Spade! That’s not allowed and you need to apologize!”

Sybil Massara

[Sybil Massara]

show me something I can see

Delphi had made a name for Syb in the underground world over the course of the past couple years since the event. Enough that others were interested in her services with enough frequency that it was worth making herself available, having a darkweb portal for hire. Syb had changed however in that time, lost the capacity to accept anything at face value, developed a need to always have the degree of comprehension now so easily available to her in most things. And she'd coupled it with an increased caution to a point that others might think bordered on paranoia. So she looked into the offers which came her way, digitally backtracking to flush out the story behind anonymous usernames. They were usually boringly predictable.

But not always.

This latest job offer came from a server with a company with a variety of quite interesting, if subtly smokescreened, ties. Links to the kinds of businesses that had seen themselves the target of international coordinated bombings not so long ago. Syb had kept a finger on the pulse of that one, deduced the pattern, the true target, even before the retaliatory threads began spider webbing out to nudge the criminal world into counter-action. The Spades were too well-funded to need an outside contractor like her for so simple a job as was being proposed. And they were too connected and informed to be likely to buy into the more extreme rumors, the ones who thought Delphi was an oracle, a seer, a clairvoyant with near omniscient perception.

Why then contact her and without even being upfront about who they were? Sitting at her computer, Syb's gaze had idly slid over to the mask she sometimes wore and the spades on its cheeks. Could it really be something so banal..? Well, perhaps in the current climate, it had gained more significance, of course. Obsessive curiosity overcame phobic wariness and Syb agreed to the meet.

The locale was... tacky. Some kind of dystopian theme bar, cluttered with chatzky pseudo-scifi armaments and made over with faux weathered and damaged furniture and installation pieces. Certainly not the kind of upscale lounge Syb preferred. She had not conned and thieved her way out of relative poverty and into wealth enough to enjoy regular luxury just to frequent establishments which had to use zoomer-fad gimmicks to bring in clientele. But she hadn't picked the spot and, at the very least, it meant she didn't have to worry about putting together an outfit that was both appropriate for the setting and practical for her needs. Here she could get away with just sticking to Lululemon yoga pants, Nike frees, and a VS sports bra that peaked out around the edges of her compression tank top. Syb was glad of it as combat became a higher likelihood upon walking into the pub and clocking several obvious hired muscle posted around the exits. The Glock 26 Gen 4 in her gucci purse was also obviously the right choice, though she'd foregone the silencer tonight. The mercs confirmed her previous conclusion that any circumstances under which she'd have to use it would not likely be very low-key.

Sipping a pink raspberry cosmo at a seat strategically selected to give her the widest vantage point and easiest exit routes, Syb tagged her contact the second she walked through the door. The woman had more than one visible spades tattoos, after all. So... they wouldn't be keeping up the pretense for long then? No, the taller blonde cut straight to the chase almost as soon as she sat down. Subtly snapping a pic with her Iphone SE when the woman had first entered, an algorithm of Syb's own design comprised of various hacked resources had already fed her back the relevant data by the time miss Evgeniya had taken her seat.

"Please just call me Syb, Adri. Alright if I call you Adri?" Came her reflexively casual response, accompanied by a playful smirk over the lip of her martini glass.

"Although you've really gotta tell me how you even know that name. I mean like, I know the Spades are not short on resources? But still, the fact that anybody can connect my Delphi persona to my uh..." Syb tittered lightly, "Gov'ment name, if you will? Def a hole in security I need to patch up, y'know?" A cheeky wink was the grifter's cherry on top.

"Anywhooo... so that is what this is about? I figured but... I mean, I used the mask for the first time like... what? Fourteen months ago? Now all of a sudden somebody took a shot at your little group and, even if you did manage to manipulate half the underworld into revenge... kudos, bee tee dubs, that was smooth... still makes bad enough of an image problem to finally confront me?" Syb arched one threaded brow dubiously, then shrugged. She'd see how Adri would react to having her demand taken at face value.

"Fair enough, I guess. Was probs rude of me, can see how you'd want an apology. I mean, technically pretty public domain, but its the principle of the thing, right?" Syb set aside her drink, clasped her hands in front of her, and leaned forward to look her companion in the eyes with an expression and tone suddenly deceptively far more sincere and somber than her previous commentary.

"That's my bad. I'm sorry." In a snap, her light grin was in place once more and she was lounging back in her seat with cocktail in hand.

"You're like super cute, just sayin." Syb offered absently. "Kinda figured whoever you sent would look more like those beefy gentlemen you've got at the doors, you know? Anyway, fairs fair. I gave what you asked... so how did you know who I was?"

Adrijana Evgeniya

ulla

[Adrijana Evgeniya]

Well this wasn’t a bad start at all! The business of her being a dirty rotten symbol stealer aside, Adri found that she actually liked Syb. She tittered a bit at the girl’s banter and gave her a warm, friendly smile. It helped that she found the other girl attractive as well. Maybe they could be friends. Syb knowing her name off the bat didn’t bother Adri at all; she liked being recognized and, besides, she had a twitter.



At the girl’s calling her cute Adri’s smiled widened and she said, “Aww, you think so? Thanks! Yeah, who wants to talk to some fat old goon, right? I love your pants, they’re great on you!” Compliments were a sure path to Adri’s heart. She looked the other woman over, eyes lingering on her chest, tongue flicking outward against her upper teeth. Adri had on dark purple eyeliner and very red lipstick. She wore earrings shaped liked skulls and had a ring in one nostril and two in her right eyebrow. Bracelets jangled from both wrists. She thought that Syb’s yoga pants were flattering but that her choice of top could use some improvement.



She didn’t actually know how they’d connected Delphi and Syb. No one had told her that and she hadn’t really care to find out. She put her hand to her chin and considered a moment. “Hmmm. You know, I don’t know! I’m not a hacker. But you know, we have a bunch of people who do electronic stuff, like the stock market, and they’ve got powers and everything. It was probably one of them.” That was how the Spades made a lot of their money, but Adri had never tried to understand it all. She didn’t care where it came from as long as it kept coming. “Sorry! You can try asking but they never tell secrets like that. You know how it is.”



Adri leaned back on her chair and chuckled slightly. “You were expecting the goon squad, but I was kind of expecting you to say no. Actually I kinda hoped you would because I think you’d scream really well. But if you’re going to stop, that’s great! You wanna get some drinks and dance?” She suddenly sat up as if remembering something. “Oh, I almost forgot! There’s also a ten million dollar fine. We can set that up after drinks if you want!”

Sybil Massara