[h2]Alessa Heather: Little Owl Cafe[/h2]
Okay, where the heck was this attitude coming from with Margrave? Was this because he felt like he’d been slighted? She’d absolutely tried to connect with him after the fact, damn it, and been brushed off for her efforts!

And before she could take him to task, Lillian responded with... substantial meekness. Her words were sweet, honestly, and it seemed logical for her to pass off command to Alessa in turn. Before she could say anything, though, Elliot continued as if his response were already scripted in his mind - and frankly, it was [i]mean.[/i] Yes, of course Alessa knew all that stuff about Elliot, and about the rest of the Wards!

[i]From their files.[/i] Oh, God, and whilst it wasn’t like she hadn’t tried to talk with him throughout her year under Sonar, he’d always been just distant enough to make communication difficult, and she hadn’t thought about how any of them would feel without... fuck. [i]Fuck.[/i]

Elliot waltzed out once he’d made clear how unwanted he felt, and how obliged he was to help anyway, and Alessa began to start hyperventilating slightly. If she’d just done more... if she’d actually tried to bring the team together... if she hadn’t gotten trapped in that Godforsaken crowd, if the warehouse hadn’t been so fucking fucked, Christ she’d murdered so many people there, she knew they were just clones, of course they were, but the gore was real, the blood was real, hell, hell HELL-

She forced herself to breath at a measured pace, like the therapist had said. She swallowed, no saliva going down, and realised she’d had her head in her hands for the past ten seconds. Was she crying? No, just sweat from the heat of the coffee, but she wiped it off anyway. And Kendall was asking if Lillian was doing okay before she’d even fully recovered. [i]Everyone[/i] was probably downhearted, and no wonder. Placing her hand over Lillian’s, Alessa squeezed tightly, trying to soothe Lillian as well as calm herself down, in preparation for what she had to say next. If she could get what she should say sorted out in her head, anyway. Professional? No, no, that didn’t work last time. She had to be open. She had to be receptive. A friend, moreso than a leader.

‘Erm. Wwkkhe-’ Coughing as she choked on her own lack of saliva, Alessa swallowed a second time and tried again, more successfully: ‘Well, I think it’s safe to say, I ought to try and get everybody closer to one another so this doesn’t happen again. We... we don’t want anyone leaving at such a crucial time.’ She refrained from reminding everybody that two people [i]had[/i] left the Wards recently. Nobody needed to think about Ira departing. She didn’t need to think about... about Dean. Poor Dean.

‘I’ll see about setting some things up... as for the plan, that’s simple,’ she explained. ‘Text Decoy, and get him to get Director Kens to assign that mission for us. If he’s got an idea for a mission that’d suit that purpose better than Lily’s, or if he can adapt that to something that Collin would feasibly fall for, so be it. Decoy’s probably our best bet to handle figuring out who Collin is contacting too, and after that... well,’ she finalised, shutting her fist in Evelyn’s direction as a mimicking of her role, ‘closing the trap will be the last step, I imagine.

‘I think that covers everything. Any thoughts, possible areas to shore up?’ she asked, hoping everybody would be- ...hoping everybody [i]present[/i] would be able to analyse what she’d said for potential weaknesses. She couldn’t think of any. Maybe they would, though.