Welcome to Gaia! ::

Since she had tried to summon Spinel and gotten no answer, Avalon thought it best to take a look in on his girlfriend. Skirting near Tallulah Cowden’s neighborhood, she had sensed an eternal senshi; and in her recently-concussed state, she had no desire to tangle with such a one, so she didn’t. Instead, she found the girl leaving the library late at night and going to an apartment building, where she was met by a man--not Paul Wyndham, who had been reported missing the last time Avalon had checked. A different man, which was interesting. Evidently she had not waited long before moving on.

She checked again the next night, and the next, and then on the fourth night she blocked Tallulah’s path to the bus stop, sword in hand just to make the threat absolutely transparent rather than implied. “You didn’t mourn for long once your boyfriend disappeared, Tallulah,” she said pleasantly, summoning her youma in a way that looked absent-minded. The warped, but still recognizable, form of Shay Wyndham appeared from nothing behind her. “D’you know something I don’t?”

“Your boyfriend, Tallulah,” said Avalon. “Paul? You know, the one who’s gone missing. Not the one you visited last night. Although I have to admit, you make a much cuter couple with this new guy. What’s his name?” She wondered if she was talking too much to be menacing. She probably was. Why did she have such a problem with this girl? She just wanted to. God. No, this was so stupid. But she wanted… she wanted to make sure that Spinel wasn’t getting away without his just desserts, without knowing that there was something he’d given up.

Making Tallulah make a rash decision sure seemed like the best revenge Avalon could orchestrate under the circumstances.

Because she could, Avalon teleported to close the space between them, reappearing well within Tallulah’s personal bubble. “It makes me wonder how sincere you are in your new relationship… or in your old one. Or maybe Paul told you something he shouldn’t have, and now you’re just ******** around with your new boy toy?” Why didn’t she quite believe that? God, so stupid. She reached out and ran the backs of her knuckles over Tallulah’s cheek. “Such a silly, stupid girl,” she sighed. So fallible and human. “You just like tall, dark, and handsome types?”

Tallulah recoiled and Avalon snapped an arm out, wrapped long strong fingers around Tallulah’s throat--and didn’t squeeze. “Did I say you could move away from me,” she asked. “We’re having a very nice conversation and you’re not being very coherent, Tallulah, it’s starting to piss me the ******** off.”

Avalon made a show of taking a calming breath, and then directing her pretty youma to stand behind Tallulah so the girl couldn’t get away. “I want you to prove to me that you don’t know where Paul Wyndham is,” she said, running a thumb down Tallulah’s windpipe. The threat was implicit. “I want you to prove to me that he means nothing to you. Pretend that I am President Snow and you are Katniss Everdeen and the only thing standing between you and death is how convinced I am that you and your new boyfriend are the real deal.”

“I don’t care,” said Avalon, gently. Maybe he was dead. She hadn’t considered that he might be the type to heroically kill himself to save the woman he loved; but Paul had always been a depressive type. Always mumbling about something or other. She could see it. Still, could she really take the risk? Tallulah was dull as a bread knife, but she still had to be neutralized on a more permanent basis. “I don’t care if you’ve only been dating him for six hours. Convince me, or I come back with my friend Shay there, and you join her. I always have more room for pretty girl monsters, Tallulah.”

“I look forward to being convinced,” exclaimed Avalon, letting go of Tallulah’s throat. But neither she, nor her youma, moved. “But in case you aren’t… did you know Paul had a sister? Of course you did. A little girl, a prodigy. Sixteen years old and a DCU freshman, isn’t that wonderful?” Avalon, very gently and with an excess of delicacy, turned Tallulah to face the warped and twisted form of Paul Wyndham’s little sister. “That’s her. Chenoeh. He did that to her. No one made him do it. He just did. That’s what happened to his last girlfriend, and the one before that, too.”

So she was lying, a little. He still chose to corrupt his sister, and totally could do it again, if he weren’t so ******** weak.

“You prove to me that Paul Wyndham means nothing to you, and you do more than save yourself from me. You save yourself from him, too. From becoming this.” She patted Tallulah’s shoulder paternally. “Do you understand?”

So with that, Avalon considered her job finished. “I’ll check on you in a week,” she said, chipperly. “Update me on your progress then, huh?”

She vanished. Shay--her eyes were still mahogany-brown, she was recognizable--did not. She stood there. Watching.