i'm leaving you my last curse

[bravebartender]

Comments

[stupetballs]

Nice to see you again.

[She and Dolls slide into seats at the table, and she looks around at the full room of people.]

Wow, this operation is huge. How wide is your reach?

[Waverly, it's Thanksgiving. Why are you talking shop?]

[lengthened]

It spreads far. Help is needed nearly everywhere and we've spent decades building a true network. The Underground is actually a series of organizations of all kinds, under one umbrella meant for one purpose. To keep those safe that can't do so for themselves.

( Wynonna nods along, but is suddenly touched by the effort made - years at keeping people safe. Emotions don't mesh well, though, so she takes a sip of her nearest - white wine. She shrugs, takes another. )

Our stronghold is simply Dispatch. Most operations run through ours and we have representatives from dispatch in and out of where they're needed. But, we call everything The Underground for simplicity. You understand.

( "Totally," Wynonna said. "We followed all of that." Every word. )

[stupetballs]

No, that makes sense. It gives the smaller organizations plausible deniability so that they can't be singled out.

[Better to have a larger organization at your back an umbrella to hide behind, when you may not have the numbers to fully defend yourself.]

Strength in numbers, right?

[lengthened]

Strength in outreach. We couldn't do all we do if we weren't spread so far apart.

( And they recruit so they aren't spread thin. )

[stupetballs]

[Waverly nods in understanding.]

How do you deal with people who ... misrepresent the mission? Or I guess ... use your mission to their own ends?

[lengthened]

We don't just take anyone, but we find that people tend to seek us out. Or, stumble in, usually while running away from something else. It's an unspoken rule, but nobody is ever exclusively found and asked to join. The cause finds them. That way, we know where they stand.

( She does smirk, though. )

And of course, they're vetted. Their minds read. But, we've only ever had one - or two - not pass an evaluation. Or, not accept it. They may say different.

[stupetballs]

Mmmmm.

[She frowns as she considers. Some of those options are not going to really solve the issues she's having at Black Badge.]

The organization I work for is mostly military fed, while a lot of them are good people, we're having some problems with ... people who are losing sight of the mission, let's say.

[dollywood]

Their heads are up their asses.

( Her sister assumes this to be the right description of what's going on in the military facility her sister now runs. But, still. That's Wynonna. Cuts through like a blunt knife. )

[cosmiccon]

["That is how someone who isn't their boss would put it, yes," Waverly agrees. "No offense, Dolls."

Dolls shakes his head as he brings over some drinks.]

None taken. I don't work there anymore.

[dollywood]

And aren't there like, ten there's? Kind of like this place. One main there, and then all these other little there's.

( Alys tries following. She has known several languages over her lifetimes, but there was just used - four times?

"And Waverly runs... one of -- the there - s?" )

[stupetballs]

I work under the director of all the Theres.

[And because she's deciding she should be significantly less cryptic.]

Black Badge. I work under Jeremy Chetri at Black Badge.

[lengthened]

Dr. Jeremy Chetri?

( For the first time, she lifts her glass of wine and sips, thoughtfully, like he need to choose her next words, carefully. Especially in the presence of a woman who throws our her words like errant spells, or a stray bullet. )

Our dealings with Black Badge improved when he became our primary.

( Black Badge moved differently before he took over, and before Waverly, apparently. )

He rambles.

[stupetballs]

He does. But so do I, so it works for us.

[Is that a warning? Is Aalis' point a criticism? She couldn't tell so might as well float that out there.]

And he's tempered it some, since he became he director.

[lengthened]

That's not a criticism, just an observation. I like thought, even when it doesn't follow to its' logical conclusion.

( Or, when it tends to swirl around the obvious and then twists around a nonsequitor and finally settles on someone's point.

She finds it endearing, Waverly. )

How long have you worked under Dr. Chetri?

[stupetballs]

[Oh, well that's good. Waverly is relieved to hear it.]

Ten years or so? I started working there after Alice came back to Purgatory.

[And as they're sitting there chatting, Aalis's phone starts ringing, showing a call from Donna.]

[lengthened]

Your... niece.

( "And my kid," Wynonna confirms.

Dolls mentioned her, too. It's been a long time since there's been another Alice in the conversation and with such proper spelling.

She looks down at her phone. They always have it at the ready, being in the underground. It's a bit like being a doctor when you're on call. )

I apologize, I need to answer this, but, please enjoy and I'll be back as soon as I can.

( It's her polite way of saying, if shit hasn't hit the fan. Especially from Donna Paulsen.

"I feel kissed off," Wynonna says with a shrug. She doesn't know her amazing daughter. It's fine. But that was abrupt. "Dolls, how's your first Thanksgiving back with the Earps. Regret inviting us yet?"

Aalys steps away from the tables and moves up the metal staircase away from the speakers down below. As they waft Fall Out Boy's "Thanks For the Mmrs", she answers. )

Donna?

[thefaxwhisperer]

["Hardly. You haven't even started any fights yet." By Earp standards, this is relatively tame. But holds up a finger. "That was an example, not a suggestion."

Donna sounds tired, but and there probably should be pleasantries, but she has to say this part or she won't be sure it's real:]

Brannigan's dead.

[Saying it the way Rusty said it, straight and to the point, doesn't actually make it any easier. It's still hard to believe, but that doesn't make it less true.]

[lengthened]

( She catches Wynonna with a fork full of mash, held up, ready to fling it at Waverly. She eats it instead. He almost started it. Technically.

Very quickly, Aalys' world spins off its' axis as her hand finds the railing and she lowers herself down. She hits the edge of one step, sliding down to the next. She takes the call hunched over, phone to her ear.

The good and the bad swirl as this sinks in. Brannigan was not a good man, but he was a fair man. He did things in his way. He loved in his way. He also hurt many along the way.

She does have to ask after the others. The elite. She will ask how in a moment. )

What about Byrne, Behan and Balfe?

[thefaxwhisperer]

Weren't involved from what I can tell, so they should be fine.

[She takes a deep breath, because really she doesn't know how this is going to fall out in the end.]

Wallace and Corsair put him up to taking a run at the Slayers. They blew up the castle in Scotland. Unfortunately for them, Buffy Summers survived, and probably has something to do with Brannigan's untimely demise.

[She doesn't know that the Butlers were there - Rusty left that part out.]

[lengthened]

( Mixed feelings leak like a salve as she nods, head coming up, facing forward. )

Why would Wallace and Corsair... ( Almost opposite from her sinking down a second later, that strong arm pulls herself up to her feet as she heads back down, carefully, her heels clattering. She doesn't think Abernathy has joined them down here yet. ) The Gauntlet. But, they aren't witches.

[thefaxwhisperer]

Members of the Inner Circle are being picked off. Kirsanov and Hernandez are both dead already. I think they might have been under the mistaken impression that the Slayers were involved.

[Which, maybe there's a word where they could have been right. Instead ...]

Now they are involved. They're planning to hit the Riverboat.

[lengthened]

( And she knows who. At least, initially. )

He can't be working alone, Donna.

( She knows the he to which she is referring as she crosses the warehouse floor. ) And now he has a pissed off slayer in his pocket. Wallace and Corsair ordered a suicide mission? They served Brannigan up on a platter, I don't what they think they were doing. They're getting desperate, which means every other witch will be right behind them. ( Drama aside, she has to check in, under the neon yellow light of the entryway. ) Are you okay?

[thefaxwhisperer]

They didn't do no damage. As far as I know, Buffy may have been the only one to make it out.

[But that's a question to sort out later. For right now, she tries to sort out how she's actually feeling.]

I can't believe he's actually dead.

[Not because she cared about Brannigan by any means, but because he's been such a fixture in her life that she doesn't know what to do with the empty space he left behind.]

And I don't know what the old man is going to do.

[lengthened]

It's Buffy, the vampire slayer. I doubt she was a sole survivor. I also doubt the younger slayers got very far. Reckless.

( That is what matters more. )

Chances are, it hasn't gotten back to the old man yet. But when it does, he'll do what he always does. Trade up - or down, depending - take them under his wing, and start the cycle over. Along with a slow, methodic, decades long revenge on them and their ancestors.

( He's brutal. Like a science. And not to be trifled with. )

But, first he'll mourn.

( And that will last a while. He is a maudlin person. )

[thefaxwhisperer]

Brannigan always was his favorite.

[Donna was the apple of his eye for a while, but she didn't take to the Tower the way he wanted her to. Brannigan was always a political power player, always reaching for more, the way he should. She's convinced her sire expected to be deposed by him one day.

And now he's gone.]

Anyway, with the Gauntlet ramping up, I need to make some more calls. But I wanted to make sure you were aware. Be careful, Aalis. Things are going to get a lot messier before they get better.