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Bottle of red, bottle of white; tag: Sage
Topic Started: May 18 2015, 01:28 AM (277 Views)
Regan Wyngarde
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Illusions
May 17

The message that had appeared on Regan's phone that morning was at the same time entirely familiar and completely unexpected. No source address, no signature, no content except an address and a time... all of which made it pretty much unambiguous who had sent the thing.

She'd considered ignoring it altogether. She was a busy woman, after all; she was juggling several Red Court projects today that involved her personal presence in Buenos Aires, Dublin and Berlin, as well as a couple of projects of her own that were close to completion and required careful attention to ensure they didn't boil over, plus keeping an eye on her increasingly unstable father and ensuring that his territory was being properly managed.

On the other hand, she hadn't actually exchanged any information with Tessa in over a year... and no, she would not use the woman's title where there was no benefit to her doing so; as far as Regan was concerned she was no more qualified to fill that role than her achromatic counterpart was, and they'd proven as much by lacking the courage to follow through on the path they'd started on. The Pleasure Palace might have been rebuilt stronger than it was, but the Black Court was not and would never be the same without what it had lost, and as far as Regan was concerned every weakness in its broken places had been carefully earned.

She smiled privately and shook her head at her own bitterness. Yes, she was bitter over Sage's transfer to, ascension to the throne of, and subsequent betrayal of the Black Court... but that was all in the past, and Regan was nothing if not a pragmatist. She didn't trust Tessa, but that didn't mean they couldn't work together as the proper opportunities arose.

So she'd decided to accept the invitation. She'd even arrived in person, rather than just projecting her image... a dangerous choice, perhaps, but one which would communicate her willingness to take the meeting seriously. Not without taking some precautions, of course, but still: she was there. She ordered some white wine, put up her feet, and waited for her companion to arrive.
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Tessa
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Cyberpathy, Kinetic Mind, Biokinesis
Reconnaissance was a something Tessa, as a rule, did not do personally. It was dirty, dirty work, and if she could send someone in her place, then why not. All while she monitored everything from the comfort of her office, with Hermes, with the Nexus, and all her little toys.

But this meeting wasn't for reconnaissance. After most of her court defected to the Red, Tessa had seen neither hide nor hair of Regan Wyngarde. Even if they didn't get along in every sense of the word, most of it took place during... During her disappearance. For someone so intuitively curious about everything, she knew precious little about the Black Rook, no, Red Bishop now.

She tapped her fingers against the glass of her phone. After considering it for a moment, a message tapped out on her phone. A quick check on her personal effects after her return from Skrullos established that while replaced, the impostor had taken pains to utilise all of her usual identifiers. Including the way she wrote and spoke.

Her arrogance told her that Regan had no reason not to join her, but there was a nagging feeling that maintained - Mastermind had no reason to see her. She was no longer Regan's Queen.

Still, she felt a rather inexplicable smile when she saw the Crimson Bishop saunter into the lounge. Hooked onto the security feeds as she was, it was easy enough to keep an eye on the entrance as she relaxed in an adjoining room. Picking up her merlot, she smoothed her skirt downwards, and moved to join her guest, heels clicking on the hardwood floor.

"Good to see you could make it, dear," she said in way of greeting, folding herself into a cushioned seat across from the blond.
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Regan Wyngarde
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Illusions
As she usually did in public, Regan used her abilities to superficially scan the perceptual fields of everyone in the immediate vicinity. After years of experience it had become second nature, not much different than the way a normal human might keep a watchful eye on a single room. So as she sipped her wine with a superficial air of relaxation, she was peripherally aware of what everyone nearby was seeing, hearing, and so on.

Most of that information her trained mind filtered out early on, before she even became consciously aware of it... otherwise she would be overwhelmed by the flood of sensory input. It had been like that at first, right after Apocalypse's nanites had triggered the quantum leap in her power, but she'd learned quickly enough that if she was clear enough about what she was looking for, her subconscious would do most of the work. And right now, she was looking for two things: Tessa, and anyone paying undue amounts of attention to Regan herself. As it happened, she noticed the former first, when her former Hellfire colleague approached her. Which was unsurprising, as Tessa's unusual mind was highly resistent to telepathy. Regan wasn't sure if that made the woman immune to her abilities, and had never been sure; she'd never demonstrated such immunity, but that meant nothing, really. Why give away a tactical advantage without need? Regan herself certainly wouldn't have done so.

For the same reason, she gave no indication of being aware of Tessa's approach until the woman spoke, looking up casually. "Delightful to see you again, Tessa darling. It's been far too long, don't you think? Have you completed the renovations yet?"

Small talk aside, she really was curious what Tessa's motives were for this meeting. It almost undoubtedly meant she needed something from her, or at least wanted something, and Regan was exceedingly curious what that something might be. And for her own part, though she was reluctant to admit it, she had been missing the tactical asset of the cyberpath's abilities ever since she and Alex McKenzie had infiltrated that Sentinel base a year ago. It was clear in retrospect that they'd only gotten as far as they had because the team working on that chassis hadn't been expecting a breakin; by the time Alex had recovered enough for another try, their security had been upgraded far beyond what the transporter could handle.

But Tessa? Well, say what you would about the woman, she was definitely a world-class technopath. And that made her useful, and made negotiations a lot more interesting.

The question was, what did Tessa herself want?
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Tessa
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Cyberpathy, Kinetic Mind, Biokinesis
This was the part about meetings Tessa didn't enjoy. The witty - or not - repartee. She found it a giant waste of time if her companion wasn't up to a certain level of intelligence. Chit-chat for the sake of pleasure... Let's just say to a mind like Tessa's, banal discussion on the weather was never pleasurable.

Now Regan's mind, that was a different measure altogether. While Tessa's own talents blocked out everyone, and everything, the Crimson Bishop's skills allowed her to sneak into everyone's conscious, like smoke snaking its way through cracks in the brain. It made her cunning, manipulative, sly - in every way Tessa's opposite.

It made her interesting.

The Black Queen resisted the urge to cast an eye out for the limits of Regan's mutation. It was a little bit intrusive, especially to mutants who held their advantages so closely like a winning hand of cards. It was a sign of respect, whether the bishop realised it or not.

"Oh, the renovations are complete. I'm sure you'll like the new decor," she replied, equally languidly. Sage didn't begrudge the causal mien which Regan took to addressing her; her pragmatism telling her that certain battles were just meant to be left undeclared.

She was aware she had to tread carefully. The Red Court undoubtedly had their own projects, and what with her relationship with Max - or lack thereof. Logically, there was no reason to fend for a relationship that no longer existed, but it was something Sage couldn't explain, and attempting to do so might give her a migraine.

Head tilting to one side, she considered her colleague. "I don't think we've ever sat down and had a heart to heart, so forgive me if I can't measure how long it's been since we last... Chatted," the Black Queen said, keeping a smile on her romani features. It was a wonder Sage ever had an intimate conversation with anyone - she largely viewed any insight into human behaviour as inaccurate.

"You are well, I presume? Travelling quite a bit?" It was a guess, but a calculated one nonetheless. Tessa did not feel the need to track Regan's travel, though from the records held by Hellfire, and the transparency of online flight logs, it would have been relatively easy.
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Regan Wyngarde
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Illusions
"I'm sure you'll like the new decor,"

"No doubt it's lovely," Regan replied. Of course, what they were both leaving undiscussed was the circumstances that had necessitated its reconstruction: the Queens' repudiation of the Black King's alliance with Doom, and the King's subsequent exile from the New England branch of Hellfire. And beneath the superficial pleasantries Regan was trying to assemble a deeper view of the Black Queen's motivations. It was a skill at which she excelled, but with Tessa it was always a challenge; the cyberpath's mind didn't really function the way most people's did, especially where human relationships were concerned.

"It's such a pity we haven't had time to drop by and see the work you've had done," she offered, "but you know how it is."
She'd chosen the 'we' advisedly, to signal that her allegiance to the Red Court was still intact. Not that such a signal was definitive; Tessa would hardly have expected her to do otherwise this early in the negotiations, whatever the situation might be. And to move those negotiations forward, she continued "I'd love to visit, though, if you're sure it's safe now." She didn't mean the building's defenses, of course, but whether Regan herself would be granted safe passage into the Inner Circle's chambers. It was an opening, if Tessa chose to avail herself of it, to more explicitly discuss the elephant in the room... whether the Black and Red Courts could negotiate peaceful terms, perhaps work their way to an eventual alliance.

Of course, that would be challenging, given Max's current attitude towards Tessa. Within limits, Regan didn't blame him; she'd proven herself an unreliable ally, with stronger ties to the White Court than the Red. But Regan's experience with Hellfire was full of unreliable alliances, and she'd learned how to extract value from them while protecting her own position. Which was why she'd suggested her personal visit rather than a full meeting of the Courts... she was uniquely situated to bring that about, after all. It was rarely said out loud, but well understood that one advantage of Regan's well-earned mercenary reputation was that ultimately, nobody could take her loyalty for granted. Max understood this perfectly well, and consequently took care to reward that loyalty well and often... outbidding the Red King would take some truly impressive negotiating talent, and Regan found it extremely unlikely under the circumstances. But the possibility was always there, which meant that the Red Court could be approached through her without the King's involvement, if she deemed that advisable.

"You are well, I presume? Travelling quite a bit?"

"Oh, absolutely. The Red Court's global scope of operations practically requires me to be in several places at once. Fortunately, between my own talents and Max's, that's not an insurmountable obstacle," she added. Tessa knew, of course, that Regan's illusory abilities allowed her to seem to be present at multiple meetings many miles away from one another, and that Max's teleportation made distance irrelevant when her physical presence was required. But it gave her an opening to raise her own side of these negotiations, and she took it. "Especially now with this dreadful Sentinel business to keep track of. I hardly know what timezone I'm in from one moment to the next."

Which clarified the terms of their current negotiations, even if nothing had actually been said out loud. Tessa wanted Regan's assistance in re-establishing connections with the Red court, and Regan was willing to provide that in exchange for Tessa's assistance in re-infiltrating the Sentinel program.

As the old joke went... they'd established what they were, now it was just a matter of working out the price.
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Tessa
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Cyberpathy, Kinetic Mind, Biokinesis
"But you know how it is."

Tessa did know. She knew when she made her decisions. She knew when the thoughts crossed her mind. One did not have a sensitivity like hers and make haphazard decisions.

As much as she loathed to admit it, some decisions yielded results she didn't like. Results that may be more disadvantageous than she expected. Tessa felt irrationally upset when required to admit her miscalculations, but her pragmatism required honesty from her.

It was on her responsibility that Max was now the Red King. Knowingly, she had endangered the children, she did what she had to do to cut her losses. Her losses. She herself didn't blame her previous monarch. Even through her interactions among the inner circle, she had not yet grasped the weight of emotion that factored so heavily in the decision making processes of others. But she knew enough to know that she had overstepped the boundaries. To the outside world, she had miscalculated.

She might have.

Which was why meeting Regan was as good a first step as any.

Everyone in the business knew well enough that Mastermind's loyalty was to no one. Like an assassin for hire, she went to the highest bidder. Tessa didn't care where Regan's loyalties lay; it mattered more she advanced the interests of the club. If that was her aim, then they fought on the same side.

The illusionist threw in her invitation casually, and Tessa smiled in appreciation. One day, perhaps, they would discuss the blatantly obvious, but for now, she would skirt around the topic.

"Of course it is! We've taken all precautions," the Black Queen replied glibly. Regan, would be welcomed with open arms, until her goals differed from theirs too drastically. Hellfire was never just about the Black and White. Every shade of grey, every hue in between, was encouraged, but just… try not to stray too far from home.

There, her promise was given, to the best of her ability. Negotiations could begin.

A successful alliance of the Red and Black would be difficult to accomplish. Though not impossible. Especially if done through the right people. Tessa needed - for lack of a better term - a friendly voice within the Red Court, and if she could offer Regan something she needed, then they had a deal.

The moment Regan mentioned the Sentinels, Tessa's eyes flared red, a telltale sign that her Cyberpathy was engaged.

Her fingers still toying with her wineglass, the technopath smirked. "Sentinels, the mark of people meddling in things they should very well leave aside..."

The Black Queen had noted initial chatter, but without context, it had been aimless information with no shape or motivation. Add that to her focus on internal affairs - Tessa had not devoted much concentration to it, until now.

"I confess to not having paid much attention to their existence..." she said to Regan. "Things have been busy enough at home as they were..."

"I'm sure it's not an insurmountable problem, though," Tessa murmured as her eyes faded back to their hazel and she refocused her vision on her companion. There was nothing like a new project to pique her insatiable thirst for knowledge; Regan's mention of the Sentinel program was an opportunity for her to study the mechanics in close proximity.

"I'm sure we could make it go away," she stated. She had chosen to use the collective pronoun - she'd help, if they needed it.




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Regan Wyngarde
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Illusions
"Of course it is! We've taken all precautions,"

Which was not quite the promise of safe passage Regan would have preferred, granted... but then, she wouldn't have believed a promise given too readily, either. This sort of thing took time.
And of course, the risks weren't entirely on one side, either; Regan still had friends and favors owed within the Pleasure Palace, as well as her own natural abilities, and letting her into the building gave her opportunities to make use of that, much as letting Tessa on board the Vimana would have entailed risks. It was all about tradeoffs, for both of them.

So... progress.

That settled, or at least as settled as it was going to be for the moment, discussion shifted to the Sentinel program. Tessa was clearly intrigued, which Regan had counted on... the woman had relatively few weaknesses, but curiosity was definitely among them. And dangling the possibility of appropriating Sentinel technology in front of a technopath like Tessa was almost unfair, really, which is precisely how Regan preferred her negotiations.

Of course, it also raised the question of whether risking Tessa obtaining that technology was worth the benefits, but Regan had already worked through those scenarios and decided the risk was more apparent than real. After all, Regan had no doubt that the White King could both reproduce and improve on the technology if the need arose. And in any case, Regan had always believed that Hellfire's primary advantages were in stealth and covert operations, not clumsy frontal attacks. Establishing control over something like the Sentinel program would be useful as a distraction when the need arose, much as having access to Lucian's power would be, much as the Brotherhood had been before it was dismantled, but would not control the field.

In any case, the Queen's claim to relative ignorance seemed sincere enough, as did her offer of temporary alliance. Good.

"I was hoping you would say that," she replied with a cheerful smile which was almost sincere. "As it happens, if you have some time available in your schedule, there's an infiltration task I've been considering that is eminently suited for our combined talents." She didn't actually wait for an expression of interest, but rather continued with a concise but detailed summary of the facility she intended to break into, where a combination of human and automated security prevented a discreet entry by either of them -- but not by both of them at once.

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Tessa
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Cyberpathy, Kinetic Mind, Biokinesis
It was safe to assume that Tessa was agreeable to whatever project Regan had in mind. Combining technology, mechanics, and a chance to work on the same side as the Red Court served all of her purposes, and preferences. She would trade in her misgivings on Regan's intentions to take that chance.

The Red Bishop did not disappoint. She was succinct and informative, and any information that Tessa would otherwise request before embarking on such a mission was provided immediately. Based on the details and coordinates, Tessa simultaneously pulled up satellite blueprints and geothermal terrain signatures for the site in question. As Mastermind continued speaking, she correctly analysed that the Bishop's assumption was correct - while a protected facility, with recent upgrades and precautions, it was not an insurmountable problem for the both of them.

The question then, was how covert was this operation? From their adversaries, of course, Hellfire was nothing if not discreet. Tessa felt that an efficient infiltration was not that much of an issue, provided there were no other eyes on them. An operation would remain as discreet as their operatives were, and if there were other interference, interruptions questioning Tessa's loyalty, perhaps... She would have to expend effort to silence them. Now, that, she didn't have time for at the moment.

Tessa chose to trust that Regan had taken all that into consideration before broaching the topic with her, and nodded. "I'll make time," she replied. "You know where to reach me when things are in place."
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