Evelyn Mulciber (bestdefense) wrote in disorderic, @ 2018-04-20 16:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | evelyn mulciber, gwendolyn vane |
WHO: Evelyn Mulciber & Gwendolyn Vane
WHAT: Confrontation
WHEN: Evening, April 20
WHERE: Mulciber Surveillance & Security
WARNINGS: There's an incident.
It wasn’t revenge that Gwen wanted: it was confrontation. It had taken her a couple of days to come to that conclusion, wrestling with herself and with the voice in her head that sounded an awful lot like Cai. She wanted to yell at the woman who kept killing her family, to demand answers, to toss them aside. She wanted Evelyn Mulciber to offer her pathetic excuses, so Gwen could at least hear them from her mouth, so she could put to rest the bit of her that kept yelling why, why, why. The questions were too loud in her head and she had never been able to ignore them. Gwen didn’t know if it mattered anymore if she did. Cai was dead. Romilda and her mother were safe, somewhere else. She had been trying to be careful for them and now there was only her. Angelina would understand. Angelina wasn’t always careful. She wasn’t sure how truthful that was, but Gwen comforted herself with that lie when she slipped out of the house and went looking for Evelyn Mulciber. It didn’t take her an awful long time to find her. Death Eaters weren’t afraid these days. Murderers weren’t afraid. They just walked around, with their head held high, even after crushing her brother’s head in. Anger and fear and a cold determination wrapped together in the pit of her stomach as Gwen waited outside of Mulciber Surveillance and Security. When she saw Evelyn, she slipped away from the wall she was resting against, following her. There was a mild charm over her, encouraging people to look away. Gwen had used it often when she was following people: she hoped it worked just enough to get her in and held her breath until she walked into the building. There just needed to be no one around and then, there seemed like there was only Gwen and Evelyn and she took her wand out. “Ms Mulciber?” she said, doing her best impression of an employee calling her and she aimed her wand at the older woman. "Leave it on my desk," Evelyn called to whoever it was who was bothering her with a dismissive wave of her hand. She didn't even spare the employee a look, immersed as she was in the work at hand. She could have just said ‘turn around’ again, but anger flashed through Gwen again, a sharp burst, and instead she sent a shocking jinx at her. It wasn’t hurt she wanted to cause then; it was attention she wanted. And attention she got. The jinx wasn’t bad, but Evelyn dropped the parchments she was carrying and reached for the hallway wall to steady herself. The second she could, she aimed a Depulso back at her assailant without even registering her identity. Gwen was ready for it and blocked the spell, a twist to her mouth as her heart surged. “Hello,” she said, clearly. “I've come for a meeting. I suppose. We were talking a couple of days ago.” To Gwen, who had barely been able to think of anything but her brother and her dad, and her dad and her brother, it sounded funny. "How did you—" Evelyn stopped. It didn't matter how she got in. Evelyn would have to figure out who to fire later. "Well. I wouldn't think you'd want a repeat of a couple of days ago," she said briskly. "I don't think you've another brother to spare." Gwen tried not to flinch and didn't quite manage it. Her mouth thinned and she leaned hard into an old attitude. “Have you been studying my family tree, then? Is that it?” Gwen knew what Evelyn had said when shed posted but she couldn't bring herself to believe it was an accident. That was worse (probably) (maybe). "Oh, dear, you're not nearly so interesting as that," Evelyn lied. Vane had, in fact, become a point of fascination for her. "It is a pity about him, though. He seemed like an upstanding enough young man up until the end, there. If only I'd put his name and face together while he still had one." Gwen gritted her teeth, a breath hissing through them. Her hand shook slightly, but this time she managed not to flinch. It was progress. It was something. She lifted her chin, looking straight at Evelyn. “Why? Would you have let him go?” "My dear, he's the one who assaulted me. Am I not allowed to defend myself?" “I dont think you can claim self defence when you're imperiusing people,” Gwen said, viciously, her voice harsh and hard. She raised her wand instinctively, but she didn't cast anything. There was the memory, sumptuous and sliding through her, of the imperius itself. It had been like sinking into something apart from herself, but the memory made her feel sick as she looked at Evelyn. Evelyn's wand raised to mirror Gwen, but she was too curious about the answer to her next question to cast anything just yet. "What is it you want, Ms Vane?" What she wanted and what she could get were completely different things, Gwen knew. It was stupid to say anything about Cai, because Evelyn both didn't care and couldn't do anything. She was too smart to ask about that. “I want to know why you killed my dad. I want you to say it was you.” it was embarrassing that her eyes stung as she said it. Now, that was interesting. Evelyn rested a hand on her hip and tipped her head to the side. She would have to put some work into figuring out how Gwendolyn knew about her little secret (though at this point, what did secrecy matter, anyway?) "He was going to expose me. I couldn't allow that." “How do you know?” Gwen’s heart was beating fast, an electric current in her body. Her dad had known; her dad had been trying to be brave, to tell the truth. She’d always known that, but to hear it was different. It was always going to change those words, hearing them from his murderer. “How do you know he was going to?” "What difference does that make?" Evelyn challenged. "He's been dead for decades. You must barely have known him." “That's not the point,” Gwen snapped. “aren't your lot always talking about family too? I want to know.” "He begged me not to kill him," Evelyn said, cruelly. What was it they said about confession being good for the soul? She'd confessed to David Winter right before she killed him, too. She gave him the story of his life, then took that life away before he could write a single word. The memory brought a smile to her face. "'I've got a family,' he said. They all say that. As if somehow it makes a difference." It was a low blow and Gwen knew that Evelyn was looking for a reaction. The smart thing would be to not react. The smart thing was also, in this instance, impossible. Something slammed between her ribs, a sharp ache, a dull old pain which was being slowly ripped open. It robbed her of anything but the instinctive need to react and her wand flashed brightly as she aimed a blasting curse and a silencing spell at Evelyn, one after the other. “Shut up,” she said, harshly. “It’s not funny.” The blasting curse was struck down easily, but the silencing spell that followed hit its mark and that, apparently, was the end of that conversation. No matter. Non-verbal magic was barely a challenge to her anymore. Her first volley meant to pin her new assailant up hard against the wall; the second conjured a flurry of knives. Gwen wasn’t expecting them. She couldn’t have been — she didn’t hear the spells and she wasn’t used to duels, really. How was she supposed to know that people just knew non verbal magic? Air left her lungs as her body hit the wall and, although she shrieked the words of a shield charm, one of the knives drove into her leg. The pain was sharp. Gwen gritted her teeth and felt blood start to roll down her leg. “You’ve got daughters,” she heard herself say, even though a part of her knew it was daft to argue. “Why wouldn’t it make a difference? Why wouldn’t it?” Her voice was calmer than she thought it would be, even as she flicked her wand, to send some of the knives that had crashed onto the ground back to Evelyn. The knives flew by Evelyn, slicing into the arm she was too slow to get out of their way as they did so. Evelyn gritted her teeth, but removed the silencing spell even before she worried about the blood flowing down her arm. "Threatening me meant threatening my daughters," she explained calmly. This couldn't be so hard for the young woman to understand, could it? "And coming after my daughter means coming after me. Why do you think I care so much about The Beacon? Honestly, Gwendolyn." “I’m not stupid,” Gwen said, lifting her chin. “I’m glad we did. She either killed my friend or got my friend killed, probably. I hope someone kills her.” She suspected it was a stupid thing to say, but she said it anyway and then sent a stunning spell at Evelyn. There was a fire in Evelyn's eye as she batted down the newest spell. "You're not a duelist, Gwendolyn," she scolded. "So stop trying. Are there any other barbs you want to get in before you die like your brother and your father? It's almost poetic, really." It was anger that drove the spells, a deep well of it that barrelled through her whole body. She wasn’t even sure what she was going to cast before she did it. Gwen just let her mouth form the words, trusting herself this time. Evelyn’s words hurt, so she wanted to hurt her. A cannon charm was chased by a disintegration curse, ending with a volley of arrows, incantations she must have learnt a while ago or heard from Chelsea. She shouted every one. And Evelyn was good, but not good enough to keep it all back. The cannon blasts bounced back against her shielding, but the disintegration curse broke it down and forced its way through. And though the spell was weakened, Evelyn could only stare in wonder as parts of her arm vanished away. How troubling. She barely noticed the arrows whirling by. It was time to end this. She had already let it go on too long. The aim of her Avada Kedavra was distracted, but it meant business. The green of the spell burst past Gwen, bright and just far enough that she knew it wasn’t going to hit her. Knew it, but the fear was still real, a cloying presence that pushed in on her. She stumbled backwards, glancing back at Evelyn for a moment before her hand slipped into her pocket and reached for her lifeline: a portkey that pulled her out of Mulciber’s instantly. Evelyn swore as the young woman disappeared in front of her eyes. Behind her, she heard alarmed voices as three strapping Mulciber employees burst into the hallway and ran toward her. She looked at them (and their very late arrival) incredulously. "You're all fired," she snapped as she gestured to chaos around her. But the curse was still working its magic, and holes appeared in the flesh of her arm as more and more of it disintegrated away. She winced. "No, wait," she said as they each turned to leave. "You're unfired. Just get me to the hospital." |