not a good night to lose control

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

Another party was in full swing when Maea entered the Dusklight. For a long time she had been able to avoid peak hours but it seemed that her luck had run out now. With Danta's note crumpled in one hand, she wound her way through the press of bodies in various states of dress and undress and tried unsuccessfully to keep her eyes to herself. The bar was crowded, spirits were flowing and the music deafening. The Maverick would make a fortune again tonight - but his ambassador wished for neither the first nor the last time that he would find another place to do business from.

At least the back rooms were reasonably quiet. The occasional person passed her in the corridor but they were employees whose faces she'd grown at least somewhat accustomed to. More importantly, they recognized her and left her alone when she stopped to knock at the office door. A moment later she cracked the door open to peer inside, unsure whether he would actually be there. It was just as likely to be empty, with the owner flitting off to serve drinks or partake in whatever celebration or wake or tuesday they'd come up with as reason to do what they all did best here. Drink. And fuck. Et cetera.

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

// you've got a passion in those eyes //

What a surprise Maea will have, then, when the Maverick's resonant voice calls out for her to enter the office before she's even cracked open the door. Granted, she's correct that Danta doesn't spend all that much time in his own office (he avoids it like the plague even now that the void creatures are gone, in truth), and he looks as though he's recently been out there partying if the amount of glitter on his skin is anything to go by, but he is present.

"Be a dear and shut the door behind you, won't you?" he purrs to Maea, having been leaning against his desk with some file or another in hand, though it's anyone's guess as to whether he's actually been reading it. Only once he does hear the door shut does he lower said file, instead taking up the half empty glass of wine he's been nursing. "I take you got my note?" he asks, though he doesn't really need to - he can see the parchment crumpled in her hands already.

Dantalion

// so aim it straight and true //

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

Surprised and relieved that she wouldn't have to battle the band to hear or be heard, Maea was more than happy to find Danta on her first try. Closing the door behind her as asked, she waved the note redundantly. "Indeed. Something almost got the bird though, it was pecked and bleeding when it reached me." She had passed by the aviary on her way here, to make sure it was tended.

Seeing Danta with actual work in his hands was unusual enough to give her pause. Her gaze went from the paper to his face, noting the relatively mild drink in his glass. "What's up?" Maybe she was reading too much into things. But it was a bit unusual to be summoned like this, for all that she didn't mind.

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

// you've got a passion in those eyes //

"Perhaps it was the crow that likes to haunt The Last Whisper," Danta muses. (Or anywhere the Maverick happens to be in truth, or at least that's how it feels). Still, bird aside, here Maea is, and he takes a long sip of his wine as he waits for her to draw properly into the room. Setting the glass down near empty, it's with a raise of his eyebrows (what's up?) that he responds to her question at first. And then, scoffing out a laugh, he shakes his head.

"You know, I considered having Astaroth come and fetch you. Without his gentlemanly accoutrements," he says, "but that seemed a little too far. And then at times not far enough."

Levelling cold blue eyes on his Ambassador, Danta's brows draw into a frown. "You put me in a position where I was threatened, Maea, by arguably the biggest bad this fucking place has seen in living memory. I do not like to be threatened." Let's start there.

Dantalion

// so aim it straight and true //

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

There were a lot of crows around, it was true. Something about the Hollowed Grounds must appeal to them, and for the most part Maea didn't mind them. Unfortunately, they were not the reason for why she had been summoned. She could have spent a night talking about crows and considered it time well spent.

But as Danta's brow went up and his laughter came out less than amused, she grew very still where she stood. Thin fingers closed slowly around the note, and the open expression fell the more he said. She did meet his gaze, though. Much as she'd rather turn on her heels and leave. It wasn't as though she didn't understand him.

"... Ah. I understand. I don't like to be threatened either." A line dug its way across her brow. So he'd have Asta fetch her, would he? As if the man was actually capable of bringing her her anywhere she didn't want to go. "I also dislike seeing my homeland invaded, for a second time. I'm sorry I couldn't keep her out. But I was not the one who threatened you. I did exactly what I was supposed to do. Unless she really was invited without my knowing it?"

Both her eyebrows came up, wondering what the policy towards Stormbreak really was. If there was one at all.

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

// you've got a passion in those eyes //

"And yet, you chose to act recklessly rather than with decorum, as befits an Ambassador, unless definitions have changed in the time since I've been asleep?" Danta tilts his head, his gaze growing no softer as she decides to fight fire with fire. Which is exacly his point - being reckless is Danta's job. He's the loose cannon here, and it's why he has his council.

"I am not done," he snaps, before accusations can mount and be levelled any further. "This was not my ball. This was not my conference. I had nothing to do with its planning or execution, and you know it." The flames in the sconces of his office flare brilliantly for a second or two, before he wrestles them back down again.

"If you'd thrown fuel on a fire and stuck around, that would have been one thing. But you ran - hells, you didn't even check in with me. You heeded advice from another leader and you ran, Maea." And to say that the Maverick is ill-equipped to diffuse a situation is putting it mildly; it's all but a miracle (and blunt fear at the time, in truth) that has him still standing before her, breathing.

"Last I checked, I was the leader of this region, was I not? And I know I may be unconventional, but I don't think I've done too fucking badly at it over the past few seasons. I know where my priorities are, at least - do you?"

Dantalion

// so aim it straight and true //

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

She drew breath to respond, but was interrupted before she could say anything. Maea's spine grew rigid and that her own temper was flaring in response to his words grew apparent in the bright spots on her cheeks. Making sure that he really had finished speaking this time, she made a concerted effort to calm down before opening her mouth again.

"I did not plan either the ball or the meeting so that it could be interrupted by the very person it was meant to rally the regions against," she said in a low tone, just to make that abundantly clear. "Was I really supposed to just say 'yes, come on in' even though she really wasn't invited? Would that not make us look like complete doormats to be stepped over as best she pleases?" It took effort to keep her voice in check - but she managed. Because it really wasn't Dantalion who made her angry, it was the woman who had been able to cow her with nary a glance and a question.

"I am sorry for leaving. The moment I did I wish I hadn't, and Hadama can tell you that I was on my way back before we'd even reached the door. The only reason I did so was because I thought my continued presence would make everything worse. If you had said something I would have listened to you. But you didn't say anything, and I took that to mean that you agreed with what I did. Both when I spoke up, and when I removed myself from the room."

The only concession to her tight rein on her own composure was a hasty swipe of fingers through the long hair, scraping the scalp with her nails as if to physically remind herself to keep her head cool.

"You are the leader here, and my leader that I chose to follow, I don't question that. I never have. But I'm not a mind reader, so if you need me to do something a certain way then I need to hear it spoken out loud. If you prefer that I fold right away the next time, I can do that. I'll hate it to the core of my being, but I will."

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

// you've got a passion in those eyes //

"Maea, we are complete doormats against that kind of threat. That's why there was a secret meeting about it," Danta hisses, as if it might have escaped his Ambassador's notice that the likes of Dahlia and The Family are dangerous with a capital fucking D - even more so, given that they can apparently know everything and be anywhere. His feathers unruffle at least, however briefly, at her apology, and he might have commented that she was better off leading with it, until it feels altogether redundant.

"I'm terribly sorry, I wasn't aware that this was my fault." He straightens up from the desk. "How foolish of me. Let me make it easy, then. Don't you ever put us in danger like that again. And I don't mean us in the greater good sense. I mean you, and I mean me. There is nothing you can do for anyone dead - and if you're selfish enough to lose your temper and put lives at risk, be selfish enough to save your own hide."

Dantalion

// so aim it straight and true //

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

"Maybe so. But we don't have to act like we are."

She almost relaxed, almost read the easing in his posture as a sign that she'd come off the hook. But no, as usual - because it wasn't the first time - she said the right things just to keep going and blow the whole thing up all over again. It was her own frustration that had the fires of the room dancing this time, and her strained attempt at reining herself in that had the crackling flames settle down once more. For some reason, the hardest thing to swallow during this whole exchange was being told to keep herself out of danger. Him, sure. Everyone else at the meeting, absolutely. But her? That one brought on a deep scowl as she looked away.

"I never said it was your fault," she responded, unable to let it lie, "I didn't even think it. It's just growing very clear to me that we think differently. And prioritize differently. And since I fucked up so royally that you almost had me dragged here by my hair, clearly we need to talk more. Because I need it, not you."
Her shoulders came down, the anger petering out in favor of a general upset that didn't have much direction. "I'll try, though. To not do it again. If it's any consolation, the rest of you looked very reasonable in comparison to one lowly diplomat who is clearly bad at her job."

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

// you've got a passion in those eyes //

"Uh, no, yes we do," Danta corrects quickly. "Take it from someone who has lived it - if you want to keep your head on your fucking shoulders, you be the best fucking doormat you know how to be when the threat level is that high." He shakes his head, wondering how such a ball of stubborn pride can fit into a vessel as petite as Maea.

"So it isn't my fault, but this wouldn't have happened if I had said something to you," he reiterates, just to make sure he's understanding where and how he's to blame even if she's never said it explicitly in those words. Hissing a curse between his teeth, he reaches across the desk for the half empty bottle of wine he's been working through to refill his glass.

At the remark as her being dragged here by her hair the Maverick can only raise his eyebrows over the wine he's lifted to his lips, because they both know - monster or not - that Astaroth would be less bitchy about it than that. "Well, let's start the conversation this way: no more balls," he sasses, taking a long drink.

"And if you think I'm going to jack off your ego by disagreeing with you, think again. But for the record, we didn't look reasonable, Maea. We looked scared, because we were."

Dantalion

// so aim it straight and true //

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

Bristling at the idea of groveling just to save her own neck, Maea's eyes narrowed stubbornly. "That doesn't sound like any life worth living to me. Cowering and letting yourself be stepped on is what brought this region to its knees, and I'll be damned before I return to that!" The notion was suffocating, bringing back an old taste of panic she'd nearly been able to leave behind her. Of being stuck, unable to leave, unable to do anything.

Hissing at the way he kept twisting her words around and refusing to notice or acknowledge the meaning, Maea spread her arms wide and gave in to the urge to pace.
"Fine! It's all my fault, I suck, you don't, let's just put our collective heads in the fucking dirt and pretend it will keep the monster away. That's worked so well in the past. Why don't you offer up the keys to the Dusklight while you're at it, I'm sure that will make a good fucking impression. Maybe you'll get a pat on the head like a good boy."

She hadn't been angry with him, but that was quickly starting to change. From where she stood it sounded like the man's only intention was to hide and wait until this storm passed, and she wanted nothing more than to scream in frustration that it would not. Couldn't he see that? Surely he had to realize that much.

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on

// you've got a passion in those eyes //

Not realising he's bitten the inside of his cheek until he tastes copper, Danta sets his glass down hard enough to have the wine spilling out of it and onto the desk. "Then fuck off out of here," he snarls. "There are plenty of other regions who'd love to have your self-destructive, hero complex ass all over them like a rash. And unless you're planning to run things here yourself, this is how it is."

Quite when things reached this height of fury is beyond Danta, but gods if Maea doesn't know him well enough yet to have earned the right to snap in his face.

Drawing up to stand straight and glowering as the flames in the sconces burn low and small and very, very dark, he considers her outburst with little more than a sneer. "Strange, isn't it, that you'll act like this with me, but you thought twice when it was Dahlia. Almost like you knew she was too much to handle."

Nodding at the door, he gestures that she can go ahead and take the trash out herself. "We're done here, and you're done in your role here. Don't come back."

Dantalion

// so aim it straight and true //

Maea

And it feels like fear
Like I'll disappear

So that's how quickly it went downhill, huh. That's what she got for keeping her chin up and standing up for something. She couldn't even pretend that she hadn't seen it coming, because this confirmed every doubt and second guessing she'd tried to suppress over the past year. Feeling a cold settle into her gut, she huffed a bitter laugh and shook her head. "No, I'm not going to do your job for you anymore. You said you wanted this place, so you go ahead and keep it. I hope you enjoy the comfortable cage it will be turned into."

Though he was a good deal taller than her, it didn't make her balk when he straightened up and the lights dimmed. Meeting his glower head on, all she could do was shrug against the flaring pain his dismissal caused her. Maea was too angry still to acknowledge it, and far too fed up with the passive attitude to regret losing her position. "Imagine what a difference it makes to have a toddler and some friends at my back that could pay for what I say. It's almost like I thought of someone other than myself." Turning to leave, she paused with her hand on the door. "I really do hope I'm wrong, you know. But very few things disappear just because you refuse to look at them. If you don't want to fight this invasion, that's up to you. Just don't expect anyone else to stand up for anything if silence and a dismissal is all you're going to offer in return."

She didn't slam the door when she left. She simply closed it behind herself as quietly as when she'd entered. No one stopped her on her way out - probably for the better. Never before had she started a barfight, and never had she longed for a reason to hit someone as much as she did now.
Leaving the Last Whisper, she steered her path for home, to pack a bag and make herself scarce. Better leave while she still had a chance - who knew how long the Wilds could even be traveled if nothing changed very soon.

{Fin}

Gets so hard to steer
Yet I go on