"[i]Cazzo![/i] [i]Cazzo!!![/i] Put me down you fucking pig!" Lucania's hair was plastered to her skin in equal parts by her own honeyed tears as well as the blood of Adam Worth. Her dress sagged with the weight of his drying gore and her body was limp with fatigue. 

For a while after Leo had extracted her against her will, she had been struggling with all the resistance her body could put up. It was never quite enough to escape, though, she had wanted nothing more than to break his grip on her and run back to Adam, she [i]needed[/i] him to feel more pain. She had waited years for this moment, to have it robbed from her was an absolute injustice. 

Still, the simple fact of the matter was that she had tired herself out with that public display, her arms were like the peach-apricot jelly she had been spreading over toast not 12 hours prior to this moment, she couldn't beat at her uncle's back. The simple fact of the matter was that Leoluca was much stronger than she was-- and in that moment, he was the only one who could protect Lucania from herself. He knew that, and as Lucania's composure returned to her, she realized it, too.

The woman's sweat mixed with Adams blood as she lay draped across Leo's shoulder, she was physically and emotionally spent, her eyes, obscured by the hair that hung over them, were a pained blue, and bloodshot. The copper melded into Lucania's flowery scent and blended well into the sick smell of Russel City slums. With each crunching step, Leo took the two further into the darkened alleys that defined this area of the city. 

They were far away from the man by now. Lucania could spot no familiar landmarks whenever she summoned the energy to lift her head and gaze about the oppressive hovel. Just sad looking men and women milling about their squalid ratholes, most of them paying the odd pair no mind. As the drying gestalt liquids continued to soak into the ragged clothes Leo wore, he made another turn. 

Lucania recognized this street, her eyes darted about, eager to absorb any details she could recognize. She became calm enough to have something click in her mind-- he wasn't taking her to the Bitches Brew-- he was just walking in circles. Lucania became more limp, still, her panting before, loud enough to be heard sever feet away, became mousy. Soon, the only sounds were those of the tired thuds Leo made with each step and the interactions of neighbors, friends, and businesses in the surrounding ghetto.

[i]Dio... He's doing the thing he did to calm me down when I was five...[/i]

Lucania's eyes narrowed. Her body wasn't dry, but her tears were-- She couldn't break free through strength, but that didn't matter. She had her voice, her voice was strong. Her body began to shake.

With his free hand, Leo took a drag of a bent cigarette, he released the puff of smoke into the soiled air with a sigh, "So..." 

Lucania inhaled deeply, the air filled her lungs and felt as though it washed through her soul. Her voice was still strong, she could get out of this.

Leo knew her better than that.

Responding with the practiced speed of a profession, Leo threw the woman on her back without hesitation. He followed almost instantly, kneeling over her, his hand covering her mouth-- his bent cigarette hadn't left his own. Throwing the blunt on the ground, he blew the smoke in her face before continuing, "...You ready to start acting like a fucking adult?"

Lucania's eyes were wide, she needed a few seconds to register what just happened, the speed of it all made the pain linger with the surprise. The air had been knocked from her lungs and she couldn't respond with anything more than a muffled [i]'Mpfff!!'[/i] Using her Scream was out of the question. All she could do was... think.

Perhaps she had been trying hardest to avoid that.

Leoluca's expression was stone. For the first time since her arrival in Russel, she had been forced to look at him, eye to eye, and not simply [i]through[/i] him, as she was used to doing with most people. He was unkempt and tired, she had seen that, but she hadn't observed it this closely. He wasn't just scruffy, he was outright bedraggled. His hair looked like that of a man who drifted from fight to fight, his beard looked like it had chunks ripped out. The most powerful thing she saw were his eyes, though. They were the classic Castalia brown, but they were sunken, dragged down by dark bags, and seemed to convey an inherent sadness.

He was supposed to be the carefree younger brother, the on who he had chosen to cast aside his claim to leadership in the Family in favor of his mutant nephew. He was like another father to her, and she had cast him here, to muck through her dirty work for her, and he did it, without complaint. The city was wearing him down, but he persevered-- she had done that to him, ripped him away from his life and forced him to act as nothing more than a pawn of Familial conquest and her own revenge.

The worst part was, in his glassy eyes, she could see her own reflection. She hadn't even been in Russel City a day, and already she was worse for wear than Leo. The plastered hair, the bloodshot eyes, she hadn't even been here 2 hours, and already the entropic nature of Russel City had broken her down.

[i]You were arrogant.[/i]

She had been. She had made the false assumption that she was above her emotions, that she could operate as an unfeeling arbiter of death and personal revenge. Part of her felt satisfied by it all, part of her replayed the flaying over and over again, another part was...

[i]There are no parts of you. There is only you.[/i]

Leo tentatively removed his hand from her mouth. He gaze was less harsh, his weary eyes were filled with concern, he was well aware what the blue in her eyes meant. He cleared his throat before speaking. "...What happened back there? You alright?"

Lucania moved to sit up against the side of some building, the deformed child of a tin shack and a skyscraper. Leo continued to kneel at her side, and again, after a moment their eyes met. Leo's enervated eyes meeting with Lucania's. As they filled with tears, she threw herself around him, crying hard as she buried her face in his shoulder.

At first, Leo's eyes became wide in a surprise of his own, before soon after softening along with his expression, "Shhh. Shhhh. Shhh." He cooed, "It's alright baby girl, everything's alright..." They were making a scene, but that didn't matter. In a city built on death and lies, it was refreshing for a scene as sweet as what appeared to be a father embracing a traumatized daughter. For a time the pair sat there, Lucania crying, Leo calming her as he stroked her hair. The rose had begun to wilt.

"Come on kiddo. Let's get you cleaned up, huh?"

[center]~~~[/center]

Lucania sat at the smokey bar of the Bitches Brew. The room was golden-- in more ways than one, filled with low level Castalia boys and the windswept patrons of the slums. No doubt intrigued in anything with the Castalia name stamped on it after her show an hour prior. They shelled out their hard-earned (or perhaps stolen) bullets, all gleaming a dull gold as they left the shaky hands of customers. They were rewarded with a a dull golden liquid in return, Castalia Bootlegged Moonshine™-- even at half price they paid too much for the false nectar.

They didn't care. They knew why they were here. It didn't matter if it was gold or fool's gold, a drink always helped you forget.

The dimmly lit room itself glowed with a false gold. The floors were a zigzagging pattern of black and gold, golden velvet curtains lined the wall. Lucania had always found the design a tad unnerving, the only thing that didn't have the false gold of crushed hopes was the brown of the bar and the scattered scavenged tables.

And, she supposed, the customers themselves. Lucania herself was about as far away from feeling golden as possible. Was it possible to reach that point?

She took a sip of her beverage.

Leo was gone-- he was either with his wife, a group of call girls, or getting drunk. Knowing the nature with which the man usually approached life, he was probably trying all three at once. Diane and Lucy were off getting high somewhere. Carmela was... somewhere? Probably looking for anyone who might try anything tonight. Lucania would need to remember to remind herself to pay Carmela extra for that. She looked around the club. Everyone seemed to be talking to someone else. Lucania felt the isolation weigh down on her body.

She took another sip. Feeling the burn as it made it's way down her throat.

Somewhere, on an unseen stage, an [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz4uDncAqu4]esoteric jazz[/url] filled the air, air already saturated with smoke and muffled conversations, but the melodies maintained their dominance. Lucania could see her reflection in her glass. Leo hadn't lied, she cleaned up nicely, even after her breakdown. They had talked on the way to the club. Not about anything in particular, just whatever came up-- part distraction, and part acceptance.

In her other hand, she held a black rotted rose, she plopped the dead flower in her drink and took another small sip.

She had gone with another black evening gown to wear-- sleeveless. Her hair was in order, where the rose had left her hair, there were now three lavender chrysanthemums. Her face was clean of the stained make-up and blood of earlier-- her eyes, no longer bloodshot, were brown. A contemplative brown-- pretty, but not quite Castalia brown. In the right light, a fool could mistake Castalia brown for gold. 

She raised her glass to her lips, contemplating if she should take another sip or not. She hesitated-- and, for the moment, she instead listened to the gentle jazz alone at the bar.

She was only alone for another moment, however. Soon, a stool next to her found itself occupied by a woman. Lucania stole sidelong glances as the woman ordered a drink for herself, and forced more of the liquid down in one gulp than she herself had sipped all evening. The woman was bespectacled-- with goggles that concealed her eyes-- the real oddity, though was her hair. It was like a red satin sheet-- but with curls. She was pretty, undoubtedly, but she was also marked by the deserts of the world, her clothing gave that away, as well as an enviable figure. Whomever she was, she wasn't from here.

[i]Interesting.[/i]

That would also explain her tenacity. It's possible the red haired woman had never heard of her Family before, or at the very least, Lucania. Then again, she could also be an undercover MD assassin.

The woman set down her glass, and surprised Lucania. Aside from Leo, no one had asked-- but here was a complete stranger, displaying a level of concern most of her family had forgone. The woman's voice was laced with empathy as she asked, "You okay?"

Lucania still had the glass raised to her lips, and after processing the question, she almost laughed. The smile on her face was genuine, her eyes shifted from brown to a goldenrod color. Following the woman's lead, she set down her glass, before turning to address the question, "Okay..." She mused, tilting her head, "I... actually don't know." 

Letting the jazz fill the silence in between her words, Lucania took another sip of her drink.

"I assume this is in reference to my flaying that [i]porca miseria[/i], am I correct?" She didn't wait for an answer, "Are you here to congratulate me or kill me?" She raised the glass to her lips, smirking again, "Perhaps both?"