[b]Brooklyn – safe house[/b]

Nilin raised a brow at Diego’s callous attitude towards the war – especially the normals. The way he talked about it – bragged, really - and his utter disregard for common sense, such as killing through a squad of soldiers just to get a slice of pizza was worrisome. The man seemed to be on a downward spiral to self destruction and if they weren’t careful, they’d get caught within the blast radius. She wouldn’t even blink if he spontaneously combusted and took down a whole town anywhere out of her territory, it wouldn’t be her problem. Unfortunately, she was set with the task of dealing with him. It seemed like she had her work cut out for her. The young woman would’ve rubbed at her temples if she had been alone or pinched the bridge of her nose. Sadly, neither of those options were currently available.

When he finished talking to Faust, Diego turned to her once again. This time, the words that spewed from his mouth were more than enough to take offense to and strain their fragile truce. However, she’d heard far worse and she wasn’t exactly new to politics and power play. Retorting angrily or showing a less than neutral expression would’ve been accepting the bait – something she knew not to do. Besides, the fact that he was acting like an out of control hormonal teenager amused her greatly since his anger and retorts smacked of typical alpha male attitude. He was in her territory, under a truce with the Syndicate yet he acted like he was above repercussion and consequence.

It seemed that Diego Gomez was in need of a lesson in humility.

For the first time since she’d arrived there, her mask of neutrality broke as she let a smile flit onto her lips. Though her smile was beautiful and certainly held amusement, it lacked any warmth or friendship. It was more like the satisfaction of a predator having found weakness in its target. Before she could utter a word, however, Julius’ voice rang out. The barely suppressed anger in his voice took Nilin completely by surprise and she glanced at him, her earlier attention on Diego forgotten momentarily. The air in the room shifted currents, steadily growing more violent as if a storm was brewing. Julius spoke in a controlled voice despite the anger underlying it. He chastised his friend, explaining to him the matter at hand and Nilin found herself impressed with the man’s talent with words. What she accomplished by fear and cold, hard logic, he accomplished by understanding and reaching out. It was a tactic she’d rarely ever seen in this day and age, few, almost none could pull it off. The Syndicate had been right in choosing to ally with Julius Ragnarson. He was indeed a powerful man. When he was done getting his message across, he turned to her once again and offered her a smile, thanking her and gave her a pick of the rooms. She supplied the appropriate gratitude and obligatory smile and prepared to contact Karen to report the proceedings. 

Julius’ answer to Faust pricked her interest and reminded her once again that she needed to look into who he was. He wasn’t a part of Julius’ group, that much was obvious. And he didn’t seem like an Empowered who was in need of a safe house or protection either. She bid Maribeth and Julius goodbye, clarifying that she needed to head back for a little bit and picked out a spacious if threadbare room for herself.

[i]<Ren? Its done. Would you be so kind as to port me back?>[/i] 

[i]<Of course. Everything go alright? That took a bit longer than I expected. Teleporting you now.>[/i]