tampered | Log; Complete

Log; Complete

When; Augst 25
Rating; PG (?)
Characters; Tia Dalma (

tiaxdalma) and Faye Valentine (

glock30)
Summary; Tia has a favor to collect from Faye.
Log;

Faye thought it was a little bit funny how things that she needed sometimes just managed to be found underneath her bed or crammed into the corner of her closet. Like a sweatshirt. She'd never had a sweatshirt before but suddenly there it was, and it was a good thing because the cold from outside had somehow seeped in through the cracks on her windows and into her blood.

She balanced a cigarette in her mouth, her carton of them and an ashtray in one hand, and the sweatshirt in the other, plopping herself down on the sofa in the living room. After pulling the heavy material over her head, she lit up, feeling a bit warmer, and pulled her legs up to her chest, suddenly a bit nervous, although she would never admit it. The prospect of Tia asking a favor of her wasn't what bothered her, it was the question of what the favor would be.

Trying not to let it bother her, Faye dutifully sucked on her cigarette and waited for Tia to open the door.

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Tia's methods of transportation were always very quiet, and unnoticeable; she made sure she did not get wet. No, there would be no more cold wetness for her. Damnable snow. She was a woman of the bayou, the Caribbean - this did not please her. Only a few snowflakes collected on her shawl as she stepped through the doorway into Faye's building, earning a shocked look from some loiterers gathered about the lobby's fireplace. They just hadn't seen her walk up, they muttered. That as all.

"Be you awake, child?" Tia called softly as she stepped into the young woman's apartment.

Faye heard Tia coming a little bit before the other woman actually entered her apartment. Instincts, she told herself. She'd learned to keep her ears and eyes open when things began making her nervous. Tia wasn't a threat, though, not really, not that kind of a threat, and Faye thought back to their previous meeting with a sad smile.

"Bright and early," Faye said, exhaling smoke over her shoulder. The cold from the hallway crept in with Tia, and she motioned her to come in. Faye had drawn up one of the comfortable armchairs and gestured for Tia to sit down in it. "Good to see you," said Faye, trying not to let the way her stomach clenched a little be too obvious.

She could feel the anxiety from Faye, and Tia couldn't help chuckle inwardly. Did she really inspire such fear? It was interesting... and amusing. Once the door was closed, she went to take the offered seat, setting aside her delicate covering. From her bag, she took out a rustic candle holder, and set within it an orange-ish candle, and lit it. It smelt vaguely of spices, and soon, the entire room felt comforting and warm.

"Not be so worried, girl," she chided her. "I pick my payment based on your skills."

Faye could have proposed right then. The air was warm and filled with the scent of something she had never encountered before, the candle giving off a faint glow that made Tia's dark eyes shine. Faye leaned forward, stumping her cigarette out, no longer very interested in smoking. She rolled the sleeves of her sweatshirt back as well, though she didn't know why.

Skills? "Skills?" she echoed her own thoughts. "I can shoot a gun and run fast. Those kinds of skills, I take it?" Faye felt confident that her skills were good enough. It was just the matter of what they would be used for that made her light the cigarette again and wait more patiently than she ever had.

"Finding people," she said, and smile spread over her face. It was possibly less a terrifying picture as their last meeting - the roots that made her mouth black did not grow in the city, and she had not chewed them in some weeks. "There be a ransom on one linked to me, and him need to pay up a bounty in flesh."

Tia smiled and Faye smiled. Slow, deliberate, and wide. She showed her teeth. Her hands shook and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She was excited. Though finding people wasn't necessarily what she had honed in on (Edward had always taken care of that), she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. She had gotten good at it the last few months.

She took another drag of her cigarette and said, "I can do that. Shouldn't be too hard." Smoke came tumbling out of her nostrils. "You'll just need to be as clear as possible. It's hard to find someone when you're working through smoke and mirrors."

"Not someone," Tia said, leaning back. "The trade be not of specific souls, but the number. My requirements be those deserving of punishment - no innocents taken by force from them homes. None of those like you and I, trapped here by chance, not yet dead on our own. Five souls residing in five bodies."

"That shouldn't be too hard," Faye said, thinking that it probably would be a lot more difficult than Tia was making it sound. "At least they deserve what they're getting--whatever that is. Makes it a little better, I guess." Five souls, huh? Whatever this was for, it was starting to seem kind of funny, but Faye had learned time and time again not to go poking her nose where it didn't belong. She'd dug up enough trouble that way before.

"All right," she said, after thinking about it for all of three seconds. "A favor is a favor is a favor. You did what I asked. It's only fair I keep up my end of the bargain." She was a bit confused, though. "You just want me to... bring them to you? Who are they anyway? Or is it one of those deals where you're not at liberty to discuss it?"

So she asked a lot of questions. Faye had always been talkative.

Tia nodded a bit. It took a bit effort to keep from showing how distasteful she found all of this. Jack's deal with the devil was his business and his alone, but since his altercation with Sands, she had become overly concerned. Her purpose coming here had been to make sure he didn't get into anything too terrible while she waited for the opportunity to ressurrect him - goin mad with guilt did not serve either of them. If she could get him a head start by choking down her own morals... so be it.

"Be one of those deals, aye," she said. "You be safe if you not know. Maybe such things not go past those with me, but..." she trailed off, looking vaguely resigned to some distant fate. "Not ask things of this nature lightly."

Faye nodded thoughtfully, with understanding. She finished her cigarette and looked briefly at Tia before looking into the flame of the candle. The weight of emotion behind Tia's voice made it seem like this situation was a bit more than personal. Everything anyone ever did to anyone else was always personal. For Faye, there were degrees of personal. She figured that Tia's was probably one of the highest. "I understand," said Faye softly, trying to think, and a little miffed that people were all of a sudden so concerned with her being safe.

If she wasn't allowed to know the names of these souls then she at least had to know something about them. How else would she find them? In a city populated with an infinite number, it would be like looking for five needles in five fields of hay. "Any information you could give me would help me get it done faster, and am I right in assuming that the sooner this is done, the better?" she said, leaning on her knees. "Or do you just want me to watch people and pick who I think is most deserving of this kind of fate?"

Tia sighed. "I trust your judgement on the matter." A pause. "I would tell you about this, but it not my business. I be making a fool of myself again, but... feel I have no choice. Cannot watch him walk into hell with open arms, thinking it be heaven."

She fell silent again, staring at some space beside them, momentarily lost in thought.

"Be careful when you do this," she spoke at last. "Things be dangerous more now than ever. The evil that lurk about, mixed with those who be too ignorant to see it. There be men who concern themselves over you, I know that much -" she cracked a smile "- maybe you have some company on this."

"No, no," Faye said, "don't worry about it. And you aren't making a fool of yourself." Well at least someone trusted her judgment. She just wasn't sure how she was going to round up the so-called five souls and deliver them neatly packaged on Tia's doorstep. "I hope you don't mind if there's a bullet hole in a couple legs," said Faye, "as that's probably the only way I'll be able to bring them around."

The rest of Tia's words sunk in painfully, and Faye felt like there was a hole in her chest. Or an ulcer. "I know what you mean, about the hell thing," she said, feeling the need to somehow put her hand on Tia's shoulder or... Faye didn't know. Hug her or something. Wasn't that what women did in these situations?

"If you're talking about that Pyramid Head thing," she began, making a face that was both frustrated and amused, though she found herself cracking her own smile too, "don't worry. I've been strictly forbidden to go anywhere near it. But... company? What do you mean? If you mean that I'm being turned away like a two-year-old, then, okay, I get you, but otherwise...?"

Tia sighed, standing, and moving about restlessly near a window, watching the snow fall. "Not know what I mean, sometimes," she said, sounding tired. She was quiet for another long moment, and finally, turned back, continuing on with their business.

"Not mind the holes, if it bad enough to trouble the deal, I can fix it." Tia wasn't very good at womanly things, either. Sex and sensuality she could do, and do well, if the recipient of her attentions was even the least bit interested - but besides that, she defied most things. She was self-taught, self-sustained - unheard of for a woman in her day. She ran a business, she was known world wide, men feared her. Men spoke her name with terror and respect, and came crawling to her. But other women... she had a hard time with companionship. She wouldn't know how to comfort another without the aide of potions and drugs.

Faye watched Tia with a sort of sad awareness. Something was obviously bothering her--the whole business of this favor made that fact obvious--and as much as Faye wanted to ask what it was, she didn't. She knew that if Tia wanted to tell her then she would. "It's fine to not know," Faye said, leaning over the back of the couch to watch the snow fall and Tia stare at it. "Sometimes not knowing is better, that way when someone just... doesn't understand you or what you're trying to say, it doesn't bother you so much."

It was a lie, but she told it anyway. Sometimes lies made people feel better, and, for whatever reason, she felt like this odd woman standing before her deserved to feel better too. "I'll try to keep the bullets to a minimum. Self-defense. It wouldn't be fair to do more than you're already doing," she said, still watching her. Faye had no idea why she needed these souls, not really, but she had a general idea.

Faye flopped back on the couch, saying, "Men are such total idiots."

Tia listened to Faye, and laughed out loud at her last remark. "They are, they are," she said, shaking her head and smiling. It was almost a bittersweet humor, but at least it was humor. "But how foolish must we be, to run after them?" She shook her head again, and returned to her seat, resting her head on her hand. "This place not be suited to so many different sorts. After a while, we all be in danger of losing what makes us our own."

Faye grinned at Tia--it was sort of nice to hear her laugh like that--and rolled her eyes. She didn't know who she was rolling them at, though. "Yeah, well," she began, "if we didn't run after them they'd have nowhere to run." She brushed a bit of ash off of her couch as Tia sat down again. "I think it's... interesting, all these different people, coming from all these different places. Maybe it's bad for some but maybe it's good for others. Maybe... being thrown in here with these sorts of people will help us figure out what really is our own."

Faye knew that she sounded stupid, but she was the kind of girl that believed everything happened for a reason, and this was one Hell of a reason. "Although, you do seem to know better than anyone else here," Faye said with a lopsided smile, "so I should probably take your word for it."

"I not know the right way for all things," she said. "The souls of some speak to me, and I look on, and see things. Souls of some things tell me to look away, and I do not, for I am a curious thing. But some souls are quiet, and I not bother them. Too much energy, too much time, to know everything."

"It's not a crime to be curious," replied Faye, though she had a feeling Tia already knew that much. "It's human nature. We're given something that we can't have, can't see... and we want it automatically, we have to see it. It's just the way that we work." Faye was quiet like one of Tia's quiet souls for a while before she said, "I think I would be afraid of the quiet ones."

Faye gave her a warm look. "I hope no one pressures you to know everything. You should have time to... just do what you want, you know? Without having to worry about all that stuff."

Tia smiled softly, listening to Faye. She was a good woman. She had a good heart. She nodded a bit, agreeing quietly.

"Ahh.. think our business be done here," she said at length. She would stay and talk more, but she was tired. The goings-on of late weighed heavily on her mind; she needed to spend some time in meditation, thinking and resting. "You can direct any questions to me."

"Will do, el capitan," Faye said, thinking a bit of Ed as she did so. She followed her to the door, feeling a bit stuffy in her sweatshirt. "I'll keep in touch."

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