Lifting up his cellphone from his back pocket he texted Doll to tell her he was ready. He asked her where he should go next.


Doll was impatient, huffing to herself as she sat inside a small, air-conditioned bistro. It boasted the best beignets in the city and one even sat in front of her but it was untouched. One knee crossed over the other, foot bouncing as she glanced to her phone, hating that she had to rely on this tenuous connection to try and secure her future. And that bitch, Kate...Doll's ego still oozed blood from the phone call this morning, vowing to herself that it wouldn't go unanswered.

Her phone buzzed on the table and she snatched it up so quickly that it nearly bobbled right out of her hands. With a soft gasp, she managed to keep it within her grasp, reading the text with a smirk. Good.

Text: Remy's on Dauphine. I'm waiting.



Text: In ten. Order me a whiskey neat.

Robert lit a cigarette, the first in awhile, as he walked down the street. Usually he was a veritable chimney, but Kate had been surprisingly distracting. It wasn't that she didn't want him to smoke or even that she disapproved. He simply found himself forgetting, distracted, often between her legs, in her mouth, or caught in conversation. The moments wrapped him up with a surprising force he stumbled away from.

Echoes of their discussion bounced around in his head. What made him happy? Live in the moment. Enjoy what was now.

Each step he took down the street carried the gentle reminder that they had been unrelenting with each other. His throat felt raw from so much conversation and the core of his body ached from excessive sex. He needed to eat and sleep again if he was going to survive it. Those were thoughts for another time.

He put out his cigarette outside, stopping at the hostess station. She smiled with anticipation at seeing him and lead him, briskly, to Doll's table. He took his seat without saying anything at first. Not until he had one decent swallow of his drink. Then he said, "Hello." It sounded like he was addressing an unruly child on a playground.



Doll had the same anticipatory smile as the hostess, perking when she saw Robert coming toward her. He looked haggard, hair askew, as if he?d been up all night. Her jaw tightened for the implication but the smile never left. He sat, the whiskey already waiting for him, as she leaned her chin on her palm, directly over criss-crossed pins. ?You look like you could use a potion to revive your spirits. You know I could whip something up for you, cher.? It was offered in a sense of camaraderie, old friends who often caught up and helped each other out.

The next question was frail and brittle, strung together with tension that was barely concealed. ?Is Kate still in the city??



"I don't think that's necessary." He looked down at his glass and took a swallow, tipping it to indicate, "The hair of the dog." At that moment his eyes went away. He hadn't seen or heard from Troy since the moment he and Kate had been given a tour of the mansion. Not since Doll had appeared. Saying nothing about it, he took one more sip and then gingerly set the glass on top of the worn-in, linen tablecloth. The smell of the ocean came and went, hinting towards sewers then seafood and then brine.

Doll had never before made efforts to be kind to him. Friends and acquaintances were like that. They were pleasant to each other but that was different than gift giving. Unless trying to attain the favor of another, ir because it was a social expectation, offers and gifts just weren't done. He could count on one hand how many times something had been given as an act of affection and not in guilty-gratitude, as a social contract or because there was something else to gain from it.

Robert pretended not to hear the tenuous strength in her voice falter. "No," he answered but before this could be a wash of joy for Doll, he followed it, "She'll be returning, shortly." The loosening and tightening of the air felt like laces being tightened.



The vacant stare didn't go unnoticed but she used the opportunity to signal to a nearby waiter, who then topped off Robert's glass. "I didn't think you were much of a drinker," still relying on their past connection to help smooth this over. Last night, the claws had been out but it didn't hurt to put a little honey on them to soothe the sting. If it got her what she wanted.

"She didn't really seem all that reliable, are you sure she's coming back?" affecting a perfectly innocent voice. "You know, if she doesn't, there are plenty here that would jump at the chance to please the new Hades." Doll didn't reach for him, no, but she did lean forward to place her chin in her palm and offer what she thought was a coquettish smile.



"Is that sarcasm?" She'd known him originally as a homeless drunk on the streets of New Orleans. If anything, ol' Robbie Boy had cleaned up. His clothes were far neater and smelled distantly of cinnamon and even more distantly of cleaners. Still, he knew she was trying to be kind, or at the very least playful. He put on a short smile for her even if it didn't seem to match what was going on underneath.

"How reliable does she need to be?" Kate was in a position to do as she pleased as far as he was concerned. She had aired concern for him-- but Doll couldn't have known about that. Friends could only be expected to do so much for one another while at the end of the day everyone could only be accountable for themselves.

Doll mentioned him being pleased, and it may have been that he didn't notice her flirtation or that he thought that it was again, some sarcastic appeal. She had never made an attempt on him earnestly in the past. The possibility that the thin flirtation was an extension of her point was real as well, "I am not that needy."

The pause between them lingered. He lifted his head up by the chin, "That's not why you asked me here to talk, anyway."



A frustrated sigh escaped her; no, it was pushed from the ledge forcefully while one hand curled into a fist under the table, where the Hades wouldn't see it. This Robert was still as bland and trying as the old one, he just smelled better. So much for plying him with charm. Eyes narrowed slightly but she leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms across her torso.

He wanted to get to the point? Fine. "It's well known that I didn't get along with the last Hades very well." That was a rather politic way of describing her grand humiliation before the court (it had been a true court, back then). "I was hoping that a new Hades meant renegotiating those terms." She paused for just a tick before adding, "I want to be restored."



Robert wasn't easily charmed, nor was he easily seduced. It might have been questionable that he and Kate would have struck up their arrangement if not for his previous, precarious situation. Without Kate he would not prowl the streets in search of a replacement. They... enjoyed each other, even if enjoy wasn't a word that could really encompass what it was.

The forced brightness of Doll's smile went dim. He thought he saw the stitches of her which were ruthless, which spoke of the blood and pins he knew her to be capable of. When he leaned back in his seat he felt the backrest squeal as if weight had been added to his shoulders to make his shifting more monumental. "Restored." He said the word the same way someone says refinance.



Not easily charmed? Kate was hardly charming, which meant that Robert had to be...he was actually enamored with her. Jaw muscles clenched, stemming the twitch that threatened to appear in the corner of her left eye. No accounting for taste. "Yes. Restored. To what I was, to who I was. I want the dolls back." Her gaze was intent, a steely determination visible beneath the rouge on her lips. "With me at your side, part of your court, there isn't any enemy that would dare stand against you. I was feared, once." Once. That word was almost too bitter a pill to swallow, no matter how long it had lingered on the back of her tongue.

Her voice was starting to rise, a fog of desperation clouding her judgment. A burst of high-pitched laughter pierced it, bringing her back to the moment. Swallowing hard, Doll eased back in her chair, forcing her hands flat in her lap.



She offered herself up to him as a general, should she be restored. It was all so neatly presented as a win-win, but Robert knew better than that. At best life had win-lose conditions and lose-lose conditions. Somewhere there would be blow, and to that he earnestly asked, "And who becomes less-than-restored when that happens?"
He took another small swallow of his whiskey. He drank it like he needed it to tolerate the conversation. Truthfully, his imbibing was minor and the demon didn't get a dizzy head so quickly when it came to drinking. That didn't mean without a little bit of effort that he couldn't find himself blacking out on the streets like he used to. Her laughed whipped his attention to the present moment, he studied her full lips when they curled back, showing her teeth when she laughed.

The waitress took it as being her cue and swung by, paper pad in hand and customer service smile in place. Robert cleared his throat, "Crawdaddies, the half order," and nudged the menu in her direction.



Eyes narrowed slightly, lips thinned to stem the tide of vitriol that threatened to loose itself. The cords of her neck stood out as she fought for composure and then a sickly sweet smile splashed across her mouth, as saccharine and false as spun sugar made to look like glass. "Wherever my powers went in the first place, naturally. Someone benefited from the last Hades ripping them from me, all to humiliate me." There would have been more if the waitress hadn't appeared at her elbow.

"I'll have the same, full order," she murmured, almost seeming demure if not for the way fingernails pressed into the table, nail beds white with the pressure. Once she left, Doll leaned forward, voice pitched low. "What do you want, Robert? You want me to leave your little side piece alone? You want me to haul Roach back here to take her place? You want me to prove myself? What?"



"And you're just leaving this other person... anonymous?" Robert knew Doll the way he knew Roach and Kate and a lot of others. When you came across someone who knew the streets there was usually a downer for every upper. A give for every take. He didn't believe that giving to Doll would mean that something had just come from thin air. The waitress interrupted.

She asked him what he wanted. Wasn't that the million dollar question. Robert hadn't thought about her actually putting in leg work for something he wanted. The identity of the would-be offended party would have to come. Still. His fingertips drummed the table top, "I want Roach free of the Persephone contract without her having to die. I don't suppose you have that sort of miracle up your sleeve?"

"He didn't transfer them to anyone else or it would have been rubbed in my face," that admitted through clenched teeth, the old wound stinging afresh. "I'm sure some record of it was made somewhere, he would have wanted my torture to be passed down." Maybe even begging for her power like this was still part of the plan, who knew?



Doll leaned back, blanching for a moment in shock at his request. "...what?? Why?" Her mind jumped ahead and she leaned forward suddenly, elbows on the table. "The position will be up for grabs?"



"You've a descendant to pass them down to?" He was being cheeky in that half-cold tone he had. The sort where he could have been lecturing her in a museum exhibit instead of making conversation. Begging was a humbling act, but plenty had begged and gone on to be the executioner of their ill fortune.

Still. Doll would not be the last to approach him this way. He leaned back after she did, the motion seeming like reflections in a mirror drawing back from one another. "My intention was not to bind her to me... to trap her to me. My intent was t free her." There was a minor shrug, he wet his lips and looked up. The waitress walked past them with dishes meant for another table before he looked back at Doll, "I do not wish to enslave my friend to me."



"You know I don't," her voice soft, sullen. Her gaze was flat as she stared at the Hades of New Orleans, stringing her along for the fun of it. It got to everyone, eventually, even someone like Robert. "So who do you wish to enslave to you? Someone not a friend?" Doll arched a brow, her gaze now searching. She and Robert certainly weren't friends - so far, she fit the bill. "Why do you consider it enslavement?"



"Then I suppose we'll just have to find out." His eyes widened as it to sarcastically punctuate the drama of the "who" that they would be dealing with. A record was somewhere, even if it wasn't tangible. If Doll was willing to be a tool for what he wanted, it was worth it to him to take away the advantage someone had gained off of Doll.

"I don't know." Though the only half-option that came to mind was Kate. She had gleefully thought of the idea without knowing the implications. She was of the sort that gorged at a buffet simply because it was there, not giving any thought to one of the dishes having been poisoned. This contract could very well be such a dish. Beyond that, people often said things which they didn't mean. They would kill for a back rub. That they hated cheese. A backrub wasn't worth a murder and cheese was so benign that you might as well dislike clouds.

Robert's lean became slightly more pronounced a the weight of his upper body pinned itself harder against the back of his chair, "A stranger would be fine."



A deep frown formed for his cavalier attitude. He was going to have to rule alongside this person, he wanted a stranger? Did he want to blindly appoint another? "Is it even possible for Roach to be freed from it? I can ask around, of course," adding hastily, lest he think she wasn't interested in a trade. "But I can't tell if you're guessing or if you know." Her voice became even softer. "What are your criteria for looking for a new Persephone?" Doll wasn't going to bring up the fact that he didn't say Kate, for which she was glad. Doll wouldn't even consider her briefly for the position, she was an outsider, how could she rule a city she didn't know?



The city would select it, and it would do so with a reason, right? No point in resisting the will of his own kingdom. Robert seemed cavalier but one might argue that he was merely accepting.

"So far... my options for how to are limited. Temporary death to lift the contract?" Robert frowned and then reached inside his blazer, drawing out a cigarette and then lighting it before he spoke, "Anyhow, the city will know her when it sees it and you asked me what I wanted. Now you know. I want Roach out of this mess and I'll deal with whoever else it has to be that steps in." Doll was forgetting that Persephone, the Kidnapped, was alway an outsider.



The waitress chose that moment to appear, bearing two platters that were set on the table. Just as the second plate was set down, Doll reached out to lay fingers lightly on the forearm of the waitress to snag her attention. "Can I have a container, please?" The waitress smiled but it was the hollow sort that thinly veiled her annoyance. Doll didn't give a shit, her attention already back on Robert. "I could do a temporary death for Roachie," her smirk something dark, not to be trusted. "So I find out this information and I am fully restored to my former glory"



"If Roach doesn't survive it," Robert blew the smoke of his cigarette at her, just to ensure she was paying attention, "neither will you."

When things ended, they weren't going to end that way. Roach had more Hell to raise and Robert had more miles to put on his black hatchback. Somewhere the seagulls got into a squabble. He turned to look aimlessly in the direction of the cries and then is gaze leveled off over the rim of his brow to Doll, "If you make what I want to happen, I'll make what you want happen. It's a deal."



"I'll do my very best." The words were the right things to say but the tone completely ruined it. Doll's eyes were narrowed, the movement of her mouth more of a curled lip than a smile. "Even if I have to give her mouth to mouth, the bitch will survive and I'll get mine." One of the crawfish was plucked off the platter, dripping steaming juices onto the pile of corpses beneath. The legs were pulled off viciously while she stewed, waiting for her container.



"I'd be careful," he said it absently. When the phone buzzed he adjusted, reaching into his pocket to pull it out like it was a thorn in his paw. Kate. A message was sent and then he picked up conversation with Doll to complete his statement, "She bites."

A few messages later his eyes jumped back up to Doll's, "Seems I'm out of time. We'll catch up again. I'll message you if I come to learn of anything. You'll message me if there's any progress." He snagged his glass for one more swallow. It was when he stood up that he first saw him. The mutt that had claimed him. Troy. Standing near the entrance of the restaurant with the marble void of his eyes fixated on him. His tail wagged loosely but then its speed picked up upon having been noticed.

"Enjoy your lunch." Robert put his cigarette out by flicking it out the window and onto the street. At his full height, he was all the dark lord curator someone might imagine. Put upon. Insatiable and sad. He waited for Doll's eyes to acknowledge him before he broke away, reaching into his blazer pocket for his set of keys and finding the set weighed down by a new one appearing on the rung. It was a distressed red color, like it had been forced through the mouth of a rusted lock too many times.

Robert stepped outside and New Orleans breathed with him when he did. He lifted up the ring of keys, locating the one with the most substantial weight to it. How did a key with similar dimensions seem so much more dense than the others? Robert frowned, glancing down as Troy barked at him. That one, he seemed to say. Robert put it to the air and turned, wondering if Kate and another glass of whiskey would be on the other side of that door.