Madgyn (Leviathan, Mercury & CEL)

2- Leviathan

She was called the Keep...

Sienna eyes, from which an
indistinct pupil honed blackness
only unto its core, seemingly
undisturbed from the soft redness
that affected her more outside of
the eye than within. Attraction,
accrue in mysteries for what may
have been more simple to the
naked eye...

"One of the Fire Peoples," she said
sitting across from him, beneath
the bridge as they day wore into night.
There were others there, though Manny
could remember faces, their names
were a mixed hodge-podge
of indiscernible street titles

"Excuse me?" Manny had let his
mind become too consumed in the
euphoria, staring down toward the
slow moving water as if he had
expected to see or find something
there with those depths-- the river
a golden dark, bordered by shallows
of coppery color.

"You look Algonquin," the Keep sighed
before moving over into the old man's
coat, and pulling out a cigarette. The
old man, who was called Papa Lou
(Manny assured that it was short
for something other, though its root
or meaning lost within their own
dichotomy, apart from which the rest
of the world for which proper names
had become basically meaningless--
often to their owner as well)

She lit it from the inside of an
inexpensive Catholic candle,
which the Keep had always called
Voodoo candles...

"In America, that seems as likely good
a guess as any to her," Manny closed his eyes,
his arms propped over his knees as he stared
at her throat and the soft mechanisms at play
there as stared back towards his face.

"So what did you mean before
about where you are from?"

"It's under-water," Manny let his
eyes raise to meet hers keenly.

"Like Atlantis?" She grinned.

"Something like that, I suppose."

"Don't mind her," another of the group
spoke, a young man with light fleshy skin,
which under other conditions may have
resorted to jowls. Manny had always played
a sort of game with other peoples' faces, to
change the dynamics of their conditions and
from whence they had come-- superimposing
another image and mask from a life that had
never been lived...

He was not sure if there were actual
decisions in one's life, save the conditions
under which they lived. Manny didn't recall
what the Keep had called him, but he had
struck Manny already as singularly
self-absorbed. A fair weather friend, on
a good day; it wasn't that he might willingly,
nor wantingly, do someone wrong,
as that to what ends and interest it
may serve his own affair. He gave nothing
without some hint of likely return

To pluck it all apart into the whys
would have been pointless.

A spoilt air and a dingy wooden crown
from which the Jack O'Green may pounce
unkindly or to cast the wheel from which
fortune reaps and sows o'er the uncunning ground

He was fair featured, Manny had decided.
He was soft and unused to any form of violence
that he may be put upon to rely on his wits and
an element of bartering with his enemies.

There were darker potentialities within him,
watered down by a general sense of uprightedness
for which goodness played little sway
as perceived goodness may hold some promise

..."She is one of those new age nut-jobs."

"I see," Manny closed his eyes and seen
distinct images of the Tarot Hierophant.
He had not seen a deck in years, abandoning
the art as something darker than most
practitioners may have reckoned... Still,
something alike the faces of old and familiar
friends, he could remember them distinctly.

"You don't believe in any of that horse-shit now, do ya?"

"Screw you, Poot. I am so tired of your shit."
Keep scoffed, and then took another drag from
the cigarette as she stared towards him as if
daring him to say another word.

Idolatry was the last that was around
that night, and the least to make sense.
Perhaps a tad overly nervous, what one
might call twitchy-- pretty and seemingly
set just apart enough from the others that
she didn't have to notice them unless she
chose-- and she wasn't poor

"Are you going to answer me?

"I didn't feel the need," Manny didn't
feel like talking, as one question would
inevitably lead to the next...

He had a vague uncomfortable
feeling that there was something,
or someone, missing in this
social equation-- something more
important than all of the rest.

"Friendly bastard, ya aren't."
Poot turned and followed Manny's
eye towards the near sickly slender
woman-- Poot turning back
and spinning his finger near his temple

"So, what brings you around?"
Keep chimed back in, for which Manny
merely shrugged.

"Way down upon the ocean,
where I wanna be-- she may be"...

The Keep watched as Manny closed
his eyes and was asleep within a mere
matter of moments.

The radio continued to play.

3- Mercury

Angelino "Gino" Frost watched on quietly
as she undressed, a small and tight filtered
blunt cigar dangling between his teeth
as he noted the scars and bruises along
her back, buried within a lattice-work
of tattoos and a burnt name branded
against the back of her thigh

"Alright if I smoke this first?" she laid
across him, her eye set upon the marijuana
filled cigar as he nodded his head slowly.
She reached up, hesitantly at first.

It was the last lingering vestige of an
ill-spent youth, as she had once been
known as Hell-Cat and rode around
with a wild pack of bikers that were
kinda of the opinion that they owned her

She didn't get the name Hell-Cat for nothing.

Katerina Farcosi was hardly so demure
as the history implied, though time had
caught up to her somewhat and she
had settled uneasily into the area.

The rumor mill at the station
had it that Gino had tamed her,
which may have been expected
of a woman who was seeing a cop--
when Gino had been a cop

Truth was, even if he has stayed being
a cop, there would have been little interest
in trying to teach Cat any new tricks.
Gino watched her as she dug the Zippo
out from the front pocket of his slacks
and lit the end of the blunt.

"So, what are you going to do now?"
she asked, turning and rolling off of
him and onto her back on the bed.

"Become a gigglo," he smirked as
she cackled loudly at that. There
was very little dainty about Cat,
and her laughter fit her style.

"Yeah well, I'll pay you for the bud--
the other I would probably want my money back."

"No refunds," Gino said as he rolled
up from the bed and moved towards
the large third floor window.

"You alright?" she asked
on a more serious note.

"Never been there,
but they tell me it's nice."

"Yeah well, if you're going to jump,
use one of your other girlfriend's window."
Cat sat up and pulled the blankets
out from underneath her.

"I made tighter jumps than this
in Airborne school sweetheart,
wouldn't even likely break a nail
on this hop."

"Look, you got something coming in
and I may not pay well, but you don't
piss me off-- all the time--
and that is kind of a rarity
with the male species."

"You're interrupting my midlife crisis."

"How long you figure that will take?"

"I still have my hand-cuffs."

"It's over already then, eh?"
She smirked as he shrugged before
turning around to face her.

"You in the mood?"

"Not really."

"Me neither," he said before moving
towards the fridge to grab a beer.

"You could have informed me of this
before I got undressed," she shouted
in towards the kitchenette
as he downed a beer.

"It's only a hundred thousand degrees
outside. I am pretty sure you will survive."

"Air-conditioning!-- I have air conditioning!"
she said, her aggravation not real so much as
this was generally her demeanor.

"Don't get too dressed,
I mean like... It's not like I need
fricking Viagra here or some shit
like that."

"Too late," she said as she moved
past him and grabbed the corn chips
from the top of the fridge.

"There's like that glass kitchen table
there and I"...

"My baby eats there," Cat crinkled
up her nose and shook her head.

"Funny story, I was like not horny when
I knew I was going to get some, but now I
am like... feeling all, ya know... you r'member."
He teased as he followed her into
the living-room area of her apartment.

"That kind of line work on your
other girlfriends?" she smirked as he
fell in beside her on the couch.

"No Baby, I saved that one just fer you."

"You lie."

"No, actually I'm not. But
mostly on account that it's
kind of a rare thing for me
to turn it down I suspect.
Still, isn't it the
thought that counts?"

"Uh, if I only had a dollar,"
she smirked as he laughed
hard at that.
A little too hard actually.

Rolling away from her,
he reached and grabbed
the remote from the end
table... for only a moment
watching the television
before she was in his face.

"You don't get to change
your mind this time," she
straddled over his lap and
began to kiss at his cheek
before her hands moved
to caress at the back of his neck

He closed his eyes and laid his head
back against the couch as her lips
moved down over his chest.

4- Coarse Elements of Limbo

She watched from overhead,
the heels of her boots
clicking against the slate
roof of the Cathedral

It would be simple enough
to kill him from here, though
it lacked a certain...
quality of pain

"Bring out your dead!"
It was only a momentary
distraction as she turned
to see the small cart piled
over with freshly deceased
and bloated corpses

The cart & driver were an
anathema, something
out of sync with
the rest of this modern city

It was only then that she
realized she had followed
him too long, and too far
into his own world

From the corner of the alleyway,
he peered around the corner,
a smirk appearing on his face as
he watched he leave back the
way she had come.

Peace,
Po