Evie Hamilton likes working. Working means she's making money, and she likes making money. She doesn't like breaks. Breaks means she isn't working, and if she isn't working, then she's not making money, and she doesn't like not making money. But there are times when she has to stop working because the alternative is losing even more money because some random teenage girl turned into a pseudo-god decided she got impatient and sunk Atlantis a third time this week.
"Evie! My good friend! Come in, come in! Vodka?" Morana happily welcomes in the businesswomen, who declines the alcoholic drink. Evie continues to walk in and takes a seat at a table, before glaring at who invited her. "Bah! You are buzzkill. Fine, fine. No underaged drinking that leads to horrible mistakes like heat-of-the-moment murder or surprise pregnancy."
"What do you want, Morana? I'm busy." Evie complains, slamming her fist in anger towards Morana, who now sits across from Evie. She no-sells the slam, instead snapping her fingers and creating a pair of teacups for the two of them to drink from. "I'm not touching this, I know how you work. It's either cyanide or expired tea bags from the local convenience store."
"Worry not, my good friend. If I wanted to give you terrible tea, I would have borrowed from personal collection of Rose or Kiko-chan." Morana waves away at Evie's concern, drinking from her teacup and then from her guest's. She pauses for a moment, savouring the taste of the beverages she just drank. "Hmm… I enjoy the bitter almond flavour."
"Enough with the salad dressing, Morana." Evie leans forward, barely stopping herself from straight up strangling the girl sitting before here. "What's the game here, huh?"
"Bah. You are no fun, no fun at all." Morana rolls her eyes, before reaching into her blazer, pulling out a folder. "Here is folder. You asked about student librarian, da? The plain looking one?"
"Jackie McSquiggle, yes." Evie lets some of her anger subside and sits back down, picking up the folder. She opens the folder, only to immediately slam the folder onto the ground. Upon impact, it reveals the folder to be empty. "What the actual fuck, Morana?!"
"It is practical joke. But also truth. Sort of." Morana takes another casual sip of Evie's tea, completely ignoring the glare of the other girl. "Look, I cannot give you information."
"Cannot or will not, Black God?" Evie accuses Morana, who simply shrugs.
"Both. Jackie is good at covering tracks. Also incredibly boring." Morana chucks away the tea cups, chuckling as she does so, before turning to Evie with a serious expression. "Oh, and she bribed me."
"How the hell did she do that? I paid a fucking premium." Evie slams her hand on the table, then with her free hand, angrily points at Morana.
"She is very well-read in Gifts. Knowledge is power, da?" Morana explains, only for Evie to attempt to flip the table. Unfortunately for her, the shadows cling tightly onto the table's legs, keeping it in place. "Why so angry? It is not big deal, you know?"
"It's a big fucking deal. She has threatened me, she has blackmailed me, and she's not even a customer." Evie gets out of her seat and walks to beside Morana. She promptly picks up the smaller girl by the collar, pulling her up to her face. "I. Want. Her. Fucking. Gone."
"Tut tut, my dear Evie." Morana proceeds to reach up and gives Evie a headpat. This momentarily stuns the businesswoman, but she eventually snaps out of it, only to find herself completely immobile. "I thought we were here to have girl talk. You know, relaxing chit-chat."
"It seems I got the wrong memo, then. Because if it did say that, I wouldn't have come." Evie replies, her body still frozen. Morana simply shrugs before booping Evie on the noise, aggravating her.
"I must say, you have been very temperamental recently. On period?" Morana asks, causing Evie's already high anger level to grow higher. "Well, let me just say, you should give up."
"Why should I?" Evie asks in anger, only to have a chill go down her spine as she notices Morana letting her Gift out for a moment.
"Because you are nothing. You are only entertained by those greater than you within these walls because young girls do not understand the impending apocalypse, the inevitability of entropy, or the abyss of apathy. What they do know are the increasing prices you have placed. She said she would be pushing dominos, yes?" Morana questions Evie, who reluctantly lets out an affirmative groan. "Let me expand on that. You're not even on the board."
Evie finds herself no longer looking with irritation at a fellow classmate, but rather a deep, unbearable void that threatens to swallow her whole. Yet, she cannot let go, as if shadowy puppet strings have wrapped around her, stopping her from acting as she pleases. Even the breath she holds feels more a product of the monster before her than her own instinct.
Then it suddenly disappears, and Evie finds herself back in the previous scene where she's lifting up Morana by the collar of her gothic lolita dress. One she quickly lets go of, taking multiple steps back and putting space between the two.
"Tsk. You have creased dress. Now I have to change. It will take time, so I give you choice." Morana flashes Evie a smile, but the business owner knows better. "Either we continue talk after I change, or you leave now."
"I'll take my leave." Evie says in a hurried tone, and with equal speed, runs out of Morana's room. She simply shrugs at Evie's retreat, before happily skipping towards her walk-in closet.
"Hmm… perhaps I should wear purple dress." Morana mutters to herself. Today is what she would consider a good day.
