Scene #9654: I Did Promise Not To Shoot You

Owner	Pose
Schneider Greco	'Schneider Greco' is a name whose referent is located at a specific point in time and space. For a while it was located in Sicily. For most of the Roaring Twenties it has been located in Chicago, Illinois. Lately, with Unification, it has jittered between worlds, but if you are searching for it the Windy City remains your best bet. 'A near-empty diner at 8 PM on a Sunday' is deeply unlikely. But the beauty of life is that anything is possible. On April 19th, 1929 (or April 19th, 1999+13), that happens to be where 'Schneider Greco' traces back to. No-one who knows her face from the Walden would stoop to come to a humble, incandescent-lit, tacky place like this, with its wooden counters and its checkerboard floors. No-one who knows her name from the criminal underworld would connect it to this face. And so the waifish body that hunches on a high stool over a little soda-and-ice-cream, slurping it through a straw, with scarlet feathers and a black coat not covering the bruises on its legs and the bandages on its hands, is comfortably invincible in the fact that no-one here who looks at it can see 'Schneider Greco'- Chicago's youngest mob boss; the Manus's favorite show-gladiator- nestled in its skull. No-one except...
Regulus	No-one except Regulus!! Through mascot power! Regulus's first experience with Schneider was trying to stop her from shooting guys who really seemed to be jerks but Regulus has a strange philosophy in which she thinks people are, by and large, entities that shouldn't be shot. Because of this, she got shot! Since then, though, Schneider has ranged from fine to helpful and more to the point, she has learned something that triumphs over all complaints: Namely, Vertin confessed to Regulus she kissed Schneider and like she shouldn't make it her business, sure, but she isn't just a believer in peace, she is also a champion of love! And sure, she was Told Some Things that made her pretty sympathetic to Schneider, so--okay, so what if she got shot? She can let bygones be bygones. The arm doesn't even hurt anymore and your gunshot wound no longer hurting is a good first step towards forgiveness. But she's really been scouting around Chicago to get a feel for things more than actively seeking anyone out. As someone who can be invisible and as someone who has a knack of getting out of trouble, Regulus can do this! She's not seeking anyone out, naturally, but he is keeping her own eyes open and when she gets a knackering for some soda pop she ends up, wholly coincidentally, passes by the very same diner that Schneider found herself at. Yawning as a little jingle announces her presence as she steps through the door, she lets the door swing shut behind her when--- slurrrp She skids to a stop as she sees the very person that's been on and off her mind just sitting there having a tasty refreshment. Be casual, Regulus! "Dr. Pepper is the best soda ever invented you know." Regulus moves forward, intent on nonchalantly sitting in the chair next to her. "It's even healthier, that's why it's named after a Doctor." Okay that last part is just a joke. She bites at the inside of her lip as the bruises and bandages are impossible not to notice. "Um I come in peace?"
Schneider Greco	Schneider's eyes slide to Regulus with almost the same motion as a bulge under her jacket, beneath the level of the counter where the proprietor (older; balding; skinny; striped waistcoat) can't see. It might take a second to realize that that's a gun pointed at her. There's no 'click' before the potential 'bang'. Schneider keeps them always cocked. "Dr. Pepper is the best--" "Who's with you, my-la-dy?" Schneider says, a long long way before Regulus has a chance to talk about peace. (Uh-oh.) The man behind the counter glances over from his business cleaning a glass; judges the two young(?) women to probably be friends or something; and goes back to cleaning until he's called upon. Schneider's seemingly-smooth demeanor doesn't give the man much reason to panic, besides. But if Regulus freaks out too much, she might cause a scene! At the very least, Schneider gestures 'down' with the gun-silhouette beneath the dark fabric, indicating she should sit. "Mmh, and whose peace is it? That can make all the dif-fer-ence, right? The Foun-da-tion... I do not like their doves. Coo, coo~..."
Regulus	''Who's with you, my-la-dy?'' "Oh uh--it's just me?" Regulus pauses, her heart jumping in her chest as she notices the gun. "I don't know Dr. Pepper personally--" She's definitely freaking out a little bit because otherwise she wouldn't be quipping about THE Dr. Pepper when she knows full well she's talking about the Foundation. "I--I mean I'm not with the--the doves or the Foundation in the first place, you know, just Vertin." A bead of sweat drops down her face and she breathes a sigh of relief when the gun shifts to being pointed down, which is one of the better directions to aim a gun according to Regulus if one has to be in the equation. rShe plunks herself down and her shoulders droop as she catches her breath--she wasn't expecting the gun being aimed at her! She thought they got along alright the last time! r"Actually, it's thanks to Vertin I even got that choice otherwise I'd be--" She lowers her voice. "Washed away by the Storm or um.--under the Foundation's thumb. Probably the former. She--" A flash of guilt behind her eyes before she's able to push her shades back up ."--she got in trouble for it, so I owe her." She has such big eyes wow.
Schneider Greco	Schneider stares into Regulus's eyes for a long moment, as she seats herself. From how she acts, you'd expect Schneider's eyes to be fiercely bright. Instead they're usually dim, with only a faint glimmering of smoky personality in them. A burned-out bulb might bear more current than a live one. Swishhh, softly, like air-across wings, and the shape of a gun disappears. Schneider draws a black 'feather', glinting like a knife, from under her jacket where the gun was. "Ah... my-lord Ver-tin... and I did promise not to shoot you, right? My mem-or-y, sur-prises are not good for it. I'm sorry, my-la-dy." She's still eyeing the street, like she half-expects a Foundation team to come bursting through the glass any minute now. But so what if they do? Slurrrrp. "The doc-tor Pepper, he does not agree with me. 'Moxie' is, mmh, more my tastes? Or 'Nehi', but a little too sweet," she says, leaning over the counter now and lazily batting her eyelashes aside. "So what message did you come to bring, little debtor?"
Regulus	"Oh... I didn't know you cared for soda at all honestly. I figured you'd be more into liquor." Regulus admits, wondering if that's a stereotype or not of mob bosses. Schneider doesn't really fit a lot of mob boss stereotypes otherwise, actually, as far as she's aware but this is ancient history to Regulus. "You did!" She says emphatically. "You did promise no shooting Reguluses. This is a good and important thing to remember." She almost mimics Matilda's speech pattern there a little bit. "It's--okay, I'd much rather have a gun aimed at me than fired at me, haha...hah..." Regulus ends up glancing to the street like she's also expecting a Foundation team to come bursting through but, like, not for Schneider but for Regulus which might not make a lot of sense but she's gotten chastized SO MUCH. "Oh I just uh--happened to be in the area. And I guess I could've pretended I didn't see you but --- did you want me to pass something on to Vertin?" She pauses a moment. "I--I mean, it's Vertin I'm loyal to okay? Not the Foundation and ... I want Vertin to be okay. I wasn't the first person she tried to save, you know? I'm just the first one that got lucky." She rubs at her neck, sheepishly. "The Foundation's got all these stupid rules and--" She exhales slowly, lowers her head, leaning it against the counter. "Well there's good people there too. It's not just the stupid rules and people who see our lives as numbers on a line. There's people there who really do try. If I were her, though, I'd have bounced a long time ago, let it be all their trouble, but because she's--who she is--" She trails off. "So um--no official message from me! I guess I thought it'd be nice to talk to you properly, though, that's what she'd do right?"
Schneider Greco	Schneider arches her eyebrows slightly at the idea that Regulus just happened to be in Chicago. They stay pretty far up on her forehead for the next ten or twenty seconds, throughout another slurrrp of her ice cream. "I do pre-fer the liquor, my-la-dy. But... I know not how long until I leave Chicago," she says, turning her eyes to the older proprietor's back- the Foundation is a known institution, but it's best not to mention Storms so openly around someone like him. "And I thought, it would be a shame not to try them, right?" Slurrrrp. ... "Mmh, it is al-right," she says noncommittally. "Don't be talkin' 'bout alcohol where I can hear it," says the older man, finally turning around. "It's no business of mine and I want to keep it like that." Schneider slides her eyes to him, clicking her tongue. "Get the lady a Doc-tor Pep-per, hmm?" she says, sliding him a whole dollar bill. He looks startled, then pockets it, and grumbles. "You look like a nice reputable lady, now. Don't hang around types like her too much," he says to Regulus, sliding her the drink. Schneider utterly ignores him, and smiles while leaning her cheek on her hand. "Mmmh. Ev-ery-where, there are people 'really trying', and living their lives. That is true of my people, too," she says. "If you wish to ask things of me, my-la-dy, what did you wish to know?"
Regulus	''Schneider arches her eyebrows'' "Well I was looking around but I wasn't ''aiming'' for anything--" ''Don't be talkin' 'bout alcohol where I can hear it. It's not business of mine and I want to keep it like that.'' "Oh I forgot--" Regulus blurts out, a little stupidly, but liquor is very much not illegal in the 1960s. ''Get the lady a Doc-tor Pep-per, hmm?'' ONE HUNDRED PERCENT FORGIVEN. SCHNEIDER IS A SAINT. Regulus gives the man a bit of a look and a quirk of her head before looking back to Schneider. She feels compelled to disagree more out of spite than anything because she got called a nice reputable lady. "I look ''reputable''?" Regulus asks Schneider, clearly hoping Schneider will reassure that she looks like a scoundrel. "I wear sunglasses. I'm a pirate--" ''I know not how long until I leave Chicago.'' It should be a while still right? The last Storm was so recent. She didn't say for, like, a week or something. "There's sodas other places too." She says instead of saying 'other times'. "But it's good to enjoy the small pleasures while you can." ''That is true of my people, too.'' "Are they going with you?" Regulus asks. "I guess you're a little bit like her yourself." ''If you wish to ask things of me, my-la-dy, what did you wish to know?'' In truth, Regulus doesn't want to ask about Manus Vindictae plans. She certainly doesn't want to 'wipe out humanity' or anything like that but it's really not what's the big thing on her mind right now. "Um, you seemed to get along really well with Vertin at the Motherlobe." Regulus says. "Do you like her?"
Schneider Greco	"I look ''reputable''?" Schneider silently gestures down at herself with the feather-knife; at her crimson feathers that barely cover her hips and lingerie, at her bruised thighs that you might be able to make out a man's handprint from, at the bandaged scratches on her fingers and the holsters barely-concealed at her waist. It would almost be less indecent if Schneider were naked. She looks like a stripper beat up a mafioso to take his coat and money. "Piracy, my-la-dy? You have a boat with the cannons, bang-bang, and you steal from the crown?" Schneider says dubiously. "Mmmhh, there is no-one with a worse reputation than me." "And to those who know death is com-ing, what can you pay them in but life? For what would the dead need money?" She has a point. If someone is in on the secret of the Storm, you can't expect their loyalty and not promise them safety. "Them, and my fa-mi-ly, too." . . . Schneider does not often react strongly to the things that other people say, but when Regulus pops The Question, she makes a funny sort of noise mid-icecream-spoonful and nearly bites down on the spoon. With effort, she swallows, hiding the curve of her lips behind the rim of the cold-fogged glass. "Yes, my-la-dy, I am a lit-tle fond of her. Why is it that you ask? Mmh, do you want our dear lord's attentions too...?"
Regulus	''You have a boat with the cannons, bang-bang, and you steal from the crown?'' "Yeah! Sort of! I steal their radio waves." Regulus says, proudly. "Well I did but then..." She remembers the tender just in time to avoid bringing up The STorm directly herself, wondering for a moment glumly if she just latched onto Vertin because she was flotsam that could keep her from dwelling too much on The Storm washing her life away. She doesn't like dwelling on sad things, especially when they are inescapable. In truth, there's really no guarantee 'stopping the Storm' means returning to normal time. It might just mean that time goes back to being linear from where they left off. It's hard to imagine since the problem seems too big to be solved right now, but would she be sent back home and be missing all the friends she's made since? Or are her old friends lost forever? Regulus doesn't seem surprised to hear of Schneider's family. Regulus imagines what she'd do if APPLe was in trouble. Would she go around murdering? Probably not. Does that mean she loves APPLe less? She'd do everything she could while being herself, at least but it's impossible for her to tell someone whose family is drowning they are going about swimming for safe harbor the wrong way. She's not a maniac. Peace and love, that's the big guiding principle. Even people who fire pistols at Regulus deserve it. That's the great thing about it. It's for everyone. "I hope you're able to save them." She clenches her fists against her miniskirt in frustration. ''I am a lit-tle fond of her.'' ONLY A LITTLE? Regulus frowns into her Dr. Pepper. ''Mmh, do you want our dear lord's attentions too...?'' That startles Regulus out of it. "Huh?" Regulus blinks. "Oh um--I mean, I don't really think of her that way, she's my best mate--but no. I don't think Vertin sees me that way either. But I mean--it's not like it's a competition. I love her to bits but I don't ''love'' her, you know?" She takes a long slurp of Dr. Pepper herself and adds, "Besides I live in her suitcase, I get to see her all the time! I just..." She spins the glass of Dr. Pepper in her hands around and around. "She has so much responsibility, you know? It's always on her mind. And it'd be nice if she got to, I don't know, forget about it for a little while. Or something. She's very bright, so I'm sure she has thought anything I thought before, but--you know." She plans the Dr. Pepper back down. "It'd be nice."
Schneider Greco	Schneider looks a little dubious of Regulus's lawbreaking bona fides, but gracefully permits the conversation to continue. "I am, my-la-dy, ah... a ver-y ca-pa-ble person. If the Foundation is too cruel to my dear lord, or it shuts its doors, you know to-whom you could turn, right...?" She bats her eyelashes, reaching out to stroke Regulus's cheek with the black metal feather. She'd stroke Regulus's cheek with the gun, instead, but she'd rather not make the bystander scream. "She has so much responsibility, you know?" Schneider, who has always been the fourteenth mouth to feed, who became her family's sole provider as a child and a mafioso as barely more than that, smiles wanly. "I do know, my-la-dy," she says, and means that. "It is part of why I am fond of her. ... Per-haps, more than a little. If you must know." The words are said with a little gleam in her eye. Regulus may not love Vertin, but... "I have-not spent much time with our dear lord, and yet... I find myself wishing, more than be-fore, for a time of peace; that I might spend more." The suitcase... she looks perhaps a little envious. It was beautiful. It didn't quite suit her, creature of the night she is, but it was beautiful. And Vertin was there, which matters more. Schneider is done with her Orange-Moxie-and-vanilla-ice-cream, she decides, though it's still half-unfinished. She pushes it across the counter towards Regulus, offering it if she'd like to try; no harm if she doesn't. "My dear lord, I think... takes up-on her back, all the well-being of all those she knows. She tries to take even me, as I should like to take her. If you should like to treat her, per-haps... find the person of her present concern, and ensure they are taken-care-of an hour or two, and tell her this; and then make her a lit-tle lunch, and have her walk you through her garden. Right? She is so proud of it, I think." ... Her garden. So Schneider's heard even of something like that...
Regulus	''If the Foundation is too cruel to my dear lord, or it shuts its doors...'' Regulus wonders just how much cruelty Vertin is willing to endure from the Foundation for her cause. More than she should, she knows that already, but more than she can handle? She doesn't know. Vertin seems very ca-pa-ble herself. She worries if the foundation flexed, just even a little, she'd be seperated from her best friend in the whole wide world forever and have to stew in her misery about it. She has already lost her friends in the Storm, is she just gonna stand by and let BUREAUCRATS take her away? ...Vertin knows how far she can push the Foundation's limits, surely. She jumps a little at the feather-stroking, almost as if it was a wholly suitable replacement for a gun. Regulus's cheeks redden afterwards---peace and love! The free love movement! It's just kind of startling because it's Schneider, of course. She's just very strong. She's known very high level people before, it's fine. ''More than a little. If you must know.'' "I must! It's very important." She nods energetically. Look she might be Manus Vindictae, but that's only the second most worrying part. The first worrying part is that she might not actually CARE that much about Vertin! Relationships are precious and scary and vulnerable!! #-1 FUNCTION (ANS) NOT FOUND Regulus admits. "It's bigger than it looks on the inside. A bit lonely for a city girl in some ways, but--I don't know--maybe more people would help." Despite not moving to drink from the Dr. Pepper alll that often, she sure took big swallows every time she did. It's practically done with now. She's been using it as an excuse to stall for time while thinking more than anything. The ache in her teeth helps her push through difficult things to say. She DOES, however, experimentally take a sip of the Orange-Moxie-and-vanilla-ice-cream and admits, "Mm... Not bad! I still prefer Dr. Pepper though." She's loyal to the brand like a true anarchist. ''Find the person of her present concern, and ensure they are taken care-of an hour or two.'' This ... feels like genuinely good advice. Vertin might need looking after sometimes but day to day, it's the people she's looking after that need looking after. And helping Vertin carry that load is definitely something that would help Vertin. "You really do know," Regulus marvels. Of course, Regulus is pretty sure that the person of Vertin's present concern is right next to her right now. She didn't exactly make sure she's taken care of for any length of time and treating Schneider to lunch at 8 PM is maybe a litlte silly but she should do ''something''. She pulls her backpack onto her legs and starts digging around through it. "Oh she told you about the Wilderness?" She asks as she digs through it. "You know it wasn't always there, is the weird thing. It's marvy as all out and there's even a lake there now." She grabs what she's looking for and draws out a bag of BUGLES snack food. She offers the bag to Schneider. "This is a snack from--" She lowers her voice to a whisper, "From my time. I mean, not this bag specifically, but it came out like a year before my world was reversed. It's a snack food...from the fuuuuutuuure." She wiggles her fingers mysteriously. "It's not much but--so long as you are trying stuff you might not get the chance to for a while." ''She tries to take even me, as I should like to take her.'' But Regulus's thoughts are stuck on this point the whole time. "Shouldn't she?" Regulus asks. "Vertin deserves to be able to carry everyone she's more than a little fond of in her hands."
Schneider Greco	Schneider turns her back to the counter, leaning languidly against it with her elbows propped-up, and sneakily munches on the Bugles. She likes them, it seems; her eyebrows come up slightly, though the salty crumbs left on her fingers perplex her slightly. It's the inside of the bag, so shiny, like a mirror almost, that threatens to enthrall her. She's seen the Multiverse for a few short months, visited space and sat in a demon lord's lap... she still didn't know those bags in stores looked like that inside. They're beautiful. If she lived to be a hundred and twenty, it still wouldn't be enough. "No," Schneider says, after her gratitude for Bugles. "No, my-lord does not deserve to carry everyone she cares-for in her hands." It's said gently, warmly, but firmly and with little thought. "Our lord Vertin... de-serves everyone she loves to be taken care-of. She thrills to see them hap-py, and to do her little things of care, but she does not love dependence. She has only learned, I think- per-haps she does not know the difference?- that if she does not care for her friends, who will?" A smile, tired. Crunch, munch. "Some-times, they cannot even care for themselves. I think... I would like to care for them, too."
Regulus	''De-serves everyone she loves to be taken care-of.'' Regulus thinks of the times Vertin stepped up to be her hype woman, in a sense, stood up for her. Even when she made it tough. "I won't argue that." Regulus says. "There's ... It feels like there's a lot of people who'd like to make sure you're taken care-of. If that's how you feel, do me a favor and let them. I'm one of them too, but--maybe between everyone..." She doesn't feel the need to name names, Schneider seems to already know. Maybe mob bosses have a strong sense of who is actually on their side and who is a dirty rat. Makes sense to her. "Thanks for hearing me out. Peace and love." Her guiding star more than the northern one.