Who: 'Dr Vanessza Bernát' & Spike Spiegel
What: Removing his stitches and checking in.
Where: Benny's Syriac Well home
When: Newdi!
Notes: Obligatory polyvore.
Warnings: Medical nonsense; anything else will be added as relevant.

The next time Spike arrives at Vanessza's split-level apartment (on his own two feet this time, and everything), it's a little different to last time - the furniture is all where it's actually meant to be and the sofas are uncovered, for starters. The glass doors out onto her patio are closed, and there's a dog sleeping beside it, where light comes down into the room. (Rigel; she's picking up new tags for him with her name and CiD number later. Practicalities.) The room smells of French perfume and a local blend of tea, instead of antiseptic, and it doesn't look like the kind of place that was chosen with makeshift operating rooms in mind.

At the door, Benevenuta smiles, very slightly.

“Come in. My usual home office is upstairs.”

Who: Lucius Malfoy & "Vanessza Bernát"
What: The chilling moment when the woman you've just slept with comes back with scissors.
Where: Benny's Syriac Well apartment.
When: Coardi evening.
Notes: A polyvore, it's essential.
Warnings: References to sexual activity; anything else and I'll edit it in. LMK if I miss something.

( I have known deep, sad eyes that yet concealed no secrets: caskets void of any gem )

Who: "Vanessza Bernát" and "Tom".
What: Anti-establishment pillow-talk.
Where: Her Syriac Well flat.
When: Veerdi night.
Warnings: References to sexual situations, reference to recent violent traumas.

( it's real early morning no-one is awake i'm back at my cliff still throwing things off i listen to the sounds they make on their way down i follow with my eyes 'til they crash imagine what my body would sound like slamming against those rocks )

Who: Laura Kinney and Benevenuta Crispo [CLOSED]
What: Ride of the Goth Valkyries.
Where: The bridge alongside Echomire leading into Dog Fenn and Stoneshell.
When: Shundi.
Notes: Laura and Benny will be fighting a group of these because they’re irritatingly hard to kill and thus we had to make it interesting.
Warnings: Combat, death, eye horror, mutilation and consumption of corpses.

Stoneshell had originally been her plan, if only for curiosity’s sake; that plan (‘sneak through the Stoneshell quarantine, twice’) hadn’t originally accounted for the presence of a pack of seven foot monstrosities on the bridge at the edge of Echomire. There aren’t so many of them, admittedly, but at that size and ferocity even one would be a problem - although not quite as much of a problem as what looks like four, maybe five. She’s aware even before she sights down her scope that there’s going to be little she can do for anyone still alive down there - the best she might offer them is a quick death if they’re lingering - but doing something about the beasts themselves could arguably be considered a preemptive measure for anyone else. Especially if they’re of a mind to move south ahead of her.

Above her, thestrals circle, approach and retreat like great vultures that drift in and out of human awareness; higher, she can see another woman, younger, presently engaged in what looks like much the same tactical assessment. She doesn’t look familiar, but she does look competent; the four of them down there are enough to make even Benevenuta pause about going in alone. Combat of the sort that she’s engaged in over the course of the past few days is not what she’s accustomed to - she’s an assassin, not a soldier, and the fact that she’ll keep getting up doesn’t stop her from getting periodically knocked down. It’s irritating to be reminded of her own limitations in such an indifferently abrupt way - this world doesn’t give a damn what birthright she carries - but she gets back up, rolls her head from side to side, doesn’t make the same mistake twice. And she’s been thinking.

When she moves, she’s not headed down; she shoulders the crossbow and starts moving up, toward Laura, and though quick, quiet and discreet she’s not hiding her approach (or trying to).