20:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie returns from dinner liminally dipsy, dropping her keys in the dish by the door and waving the takeaway box grandly in the air. She whistles. "Kaga, darling, I've brought you the flesh of innocents~" 20:59 <VoxPVoxD> *tipsy 21:02 <VoxPVoxD> The semblance of a dog doesn't appear until the coat's in the closet, the scarf's on the hook, and the gloves come off. He pads toward her in silence, eerie yellow eyes dancing up and down the hallway as if searching for traps. "Oh, please," says Willie. "You are entirely too paranoid." 21:04 <VoxPVoxD> Carrying the food past him, she enters the kitchen and empties the carton's contents into a spotless steel bowl on the floor, Kaga sits at the junction of the entryway and the kitchen, waiting patiently for her to move. 21:08 <VoxPVoxD> Willie stares her familiar down. 21:09 <VoxPVoxD> The dog starts to whine. It sounds weirdly scratchy, even for such a big dog. Can dogs smoke? 21:12 <VoxPVoxD> Willie rolls her eyes. "Fine. Eat away." How's she doing for wine? Out. Dreadful. Obviously not going back out tonight... but there's still plenty of that Ardbeg left. After pouring out a wee dram she says aloud, "I should write emails." 21:12 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga chuffs from the food upon which he descended as soon as Willie stopped blocking it off. 21:17 <VoxPVoxD> Willie ignores him, and sits at her desk, running her iTunes library through her PC's speakers, which are the nicest sound system she's got right now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oygrmJFKYZY 21:19 <VoxPVoxD> She finds herself staring at an empty Outlook window for quite a while. Long enough that she realises she wants another drink. Responsibly, she cuts the whisky with lots of soda water, for her 'ealth. 21:24 <VoxPVoxD> There's a lot of ways to carve up this ritual sacrifice. She could send out one blast to everyone who's contacted her - that's... that's ten minutes she can buy going through her phone and old emails to count them up. There's Dev (the one she's really dreading), Amaro (the one she, objectively, should be dreading more than she does), Greta (whose nom diabolique is too silly for her to use 21:24 <VoxPVoxD> in internal monologue), Sammie (which is surprising), and Scratch (who definitely just wants to annoy her, and honestly? Fair play. 21:25 <VoxPVoxD> She's also got texts from all of her old cellmates, mercilessly left on read over the last several weeks. 21:27 <VoxPVoxD> One email to everyone is outrageously shitty, though, even setting aside logistics and propriety. Is that a CC situation? A blind CC situation? No, surely not. Abhorrent. But the thought of writing individual messages to every one of them is demoralising in the extreme. 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga's finished Willie's food and settles in on the sofa right behind her, which he's essentially claimed as his own since he got here. He covers almost the whole thing himself, and his big jowly head is wresting on the arm nearest Willie, watching her not type. 21:32 <VoxPVoxD> After some more thought, she decides: the smallest number of emails she can reasonably send is two. One to Dev, echoing out to her other Milanese colleagues, and one to the cell. 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> "You know, I could order you to speak to me," says Willie without turning around. "This silent treatment is not befitting your station or your dignity." 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga's whine kicks up just enough gravel that it might be taken for a growl. 21:34 <VoxPVoxD> Whatever. Fuck you too. 21:40 <VoxPVoxD> The problem with the Lucifuge email is principally tone. Being thin on content is fine; Dev has only the most cursory interest in the happenings of Willie's life, except insofar as they conflict with his (and Milan's) desires for how she spends her time. But how to strike the right blend of contrition without so sacrificing her pride as to radiate insincere obsequity? 21:41 <VoxPVoxD> Aloud: "Is 'obsequity' a word? Can you work backwards like that?" 21:41 <VoxPVoxD> She looks back and, seeing the dog asleep on her sofa, scoffs gently. 21:44 <VoxPVoxD> Not even being a pedant will rouse him. This is far beyond the realm of hurt feelings and constitutes some deliberate machination or strategic resistance. 21:50 <VoxPVoxD> After what feels like ages of silent contemplation and another half-glass of Scotch and soda, Willie arrives at something she's okayish with. "Care to proofread?" 21:51 <VoxPVoxD> The dog farts, allegedly in his sleep. She's got to crack a window despite the cold. "Christ." 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> After she sits, she gives it one last once-over, takes a few meditative breaths, and hits Send. 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> FROM: w.wellesley@mail.dia 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> TO: Dev <w.abbasi@mail.dia> 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> CC: Amaro <a.volpe@mail.dia>, Banewright <g.ghitarascu@mail.dia>, Sammie <s.tse@mail.dia>, Scratch <l.fenwick@mail.dia> 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> SUBJ: Long-Overdue Reconnection 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> Greetings from Manchester! 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> It's been far too long since we spoke. I've been a bit avoidant, as one often is when one has embarrassed oneself. I should have reached out sooner — you did, after all — but vestigial embarrassment combined with how screamingly hectic it's been to adjust to the move, the promotion, and the ceaseless chaos of our new Brexit Hell... I wanted to get my feet under me before I got in touch, 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> and I finally feel like I have. The pandemic is receding, and while the coming winter looks hard it won't approach the last one for pain, no matter what the people voted for. 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> I don't want you to feel like I've fallen off the map, and I'm terribly sorry for coming across like I did. There is plenty of map up here, I assure you, and I remain your committed colleague. I will be in more regular contact going forward, and I hope the reverse is true as well. Please let me know how and when I may be of use. I've retained a familiar for home defence and because, honestly, 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> I'd started to miss the smell of brimstone. 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> Talk soon, 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> Wilhelmine 21:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie exhales. The weight that'd accumulated in her chest drops away, leaving a void for worry to fill. 21:59 <VoxPVoxD> Mercifully, the feeling is muted, by drink or simply tiredness. It's been a long day. It's been a long week. It's been a long month. 22:01 <VoxPVoxD> The other email is considerably easier, as you'd expect when remorse can be taken pure, as it only can from peer to peer. And the N-Zero boys are definitely that. Visions in her head dance of unleashing Bob upon then, of furious gaming scrums with the Alpha Strikes... 22:03 <VoxPVoxD> She was afraid of getting back in touch with Dev... but she imagines she'll be genuinely hurt if the bridges back to Emmentaler et al have been impassably burnt. 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> Her eyes are heavy, but the throbbing coal-fire red of her Monster Rig presses against her eyelids. Nope! Going to finish this. Going to be done with this. Time for a night coffee. 22:06 <VoxPVoxD> She comes back in with a steaming mug, looking at the way Kaga's black fur seems to drink up the glow of the computer. A thought occurs. She kills the lights in the flat, so that the PC is the only real illumination. Immediately she's transported back to the summoning at Crime Farm, which transports her in turn back to the binding ring in Milan. 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> Still... it'll photograph well. 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> From there the hardest part of the email is a subject line. The idea is to get at least one of them to read it and go 'oh fuck off' out loud. 22:08 <VoxPVoxD> Haha. Okay. How about this: 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> FROM: w.wellesley@mail.dia 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> TO: Emmentaler <cheesestandsalone@leptonmail.htv> 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> CC: Calabrese <bfhellion@leptonmail.htv>, Iberico <jamonorripple@leptonmail.htv>, Manchego <chegolas@leptonmail.tv>, Stilton <strangecharms@leptonmail.htv> 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> SUBJ: Missed But Not Riven 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> gentlemen, 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> behold! 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> https://i.imgur.com/n31hbwL.jpg 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> sorry for being so slow to get back in touch - life's been a Mess since i moved and it's only starting to even out (as britain continues to fall to pieces) but now i've got this glorious Rig to finally finish the mass effect trilogy, which put me in mind of the extended conversation we had about a certain toothy australian woman and her perceived similarities to me. you're still all wrong, 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> obviously, but i've missed you terribly! how have you been? 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> been keeping up with the blog - am i right to surmise that last week's blind item was a shot across the bow of the honourable member for innsmouth? 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> manchester's about what i expected - loads of work, a few interesting people, and interminable, suffocating gloom. please convey to me the promethean fire of your wit and news from a place where things happen! i miss cooking for you - we should rectify this, in one direction or another... once there's food again, and The Event is something approaching a memory rather than a six year fever 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> dream. 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> love, 22:10 <VoxPVoxD> willie 22:16 <VoxPVoxD> She leans back in her chair and sighs heavily. "I did it. I wrote emails." 22:16 <VoxPVoxD> "Are you proud of me?" 22:17 <VoxPVoxD> "Pride's a mortal sin~" 22:20 <VoxPVoxD> She almost - almost - orders him to wake up. 22:20 <VoxPVoxD> But that would be as pathetic as Bob thinks he is. 22:22 <VoxPVoxD> Instead she wheels back to the sofa, and gives his sleeping side a gentle rub. Kaga wakes up only after a minute or two of this treatment, and then his sole response is to look plaintively back at her. 22:27 <VoxPVoxD> "Come on," she says. "Tell me what's up. You're not just doing this to upset me. That would be beneath you." 22:28 <VoxPVoxD> Somehow this level of pathetic feels fine. 22:34 <VoxPVoxD> Finally, after close to six days, he speaks: "Were I capable of pity, my suffering might perhaps grow to approach yours. Perhaps." 22:35 <VoxPVoxD> "Instead, I just have indigestion." 22:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Might that be the peppercorns?" 22:38 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga grumbles. 22:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "You've been quiet since Bob took you out. He wouldn't talk about it." 22:40 <VoxPVoxD> "I helped him buy a gift today and he took me out to dinner. You came up. He was suitably impressed, and distressed. You should be pleased." 22:46 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "I should have guessed. The stink of neurosis clings to you like flop sweat. I had assumed it yours." 22:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie sighs. "So what happened?" 22:50 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "He threatened and degraded me at length. I realised that this would be my life for the forseeable future. I am electing to pass it in silence where permitted." 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I don't believe you. You're protesting something. This is you being passive-aggressive because there's something you want from me. So, go on, what is it? I'm at the negotiating table." 22:53 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "Do you think your liaisons with the dead are behind your new urges to enslave and abuse your slaves?" 22:53 <VoxPVoxD> "You shouldn't." 22:54 <VoxPVoxD> "They aren't new." 22:54 <VoxPVoxD> Finally! A bite on the line. Willie seems a bit relieved. "There, see? Is that so hard? A bit of white noise?" 22:56 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga rests his head back on the arm of the sofa and shuts his eyes. "I'm tired of you." 23:00 <VoxPVoxD> Willie slumps. "Fine. I won't fight you. But you'll get bored on your own. The only being in the entire universe who enjoys the sound of your voice more than me is you." 23:00 <VoxPVoxD> Silence. 23:03 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks down from above on a rising well of frustration, more than enough to sting her eyes and sharpen her tongue. But it can't rise to reach her where she is, floating above the deep well of her own heart like a chubby little cherub. 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> He's got a bit of a point, doesn't he? What exactly does she think she's doing here? 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> So she gets up, pushes her chair back in, and dresses for bed. 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> When her back turns, the mastiff lifts his head just enough to provide clearance to his jaw, and his neck inclines just enough to look at her as she doesn't hesitate in the doorway, anticipating a parting rejoinder. 23:05 <VoxPVoxD> Unexpected. 23:09 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga passes another three quarters of an hour in silence, listening to Willie rustle through the rituals in advance of going to bed reasonably drunk. Glass of water. Vitamin. A generous alarm. She doesn't speak anymore. She doesn't even back out of her room to look at him, to try and catch him listening with intent, as he now is. 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> The last light goes out, and the only noise is the gentle humming of the space heater. The only light comes from the LEDs of what she's now going to internally refer to exclusively as the Monster Rig. 23:18 <VoxPVoxD> Another half-hour passes. The dog is silent as it pads into her room. She's on her side, back to the door, breathing regularly. 23:20 <VoxPVoxD> The demon's voice scrapes her spine. Her eyes fly open in an instant. But she doesn't move. 23:22 <VoxPVoxD> But those blasphemies and blandishments are what carry her off to steady sleep. She dreams of Hell and Inchcape.