It might have been possible to go your entire life without ever knowing Marianne had emotions other than "amused" and "angry". And yet, here she is with her burning eyes and dangerously glinting teeth, with her fluttering, shredded coat and the thin wisps of smoke curling off of her body, with those golden chains glinting inside the shadows of her face. And the word to describe her is... surprised. Stunned, really.

Nothing changes about her posture or expression, but her aura feels almost unrecognizable. It's like she took a sip of water and swallowed it wrong, and in the act of choking forgot for a moment how to be a demon. There's a human under all of that mystic theatricality. Somewhere. 

And then she tosses her head back to laugh, and the moment shatters to pieces. The crushing weight of her presence comes rushing back into the room all at once, and she springs lightly forward to pat Set on her head and ruffle her hair.

"Is that how it is? Is [i]that[/i] how it is, [i]ma belle petite chose?[/i] Ah, to be young, to be a dreamer chasing stardust! This is why I do not let you reform the tyrants with literature, little bunny. But come, come! If you are so lost, Marianne will help you with your homework, yes!"

She smiles with surprising sweetness, right before she flicks Set lightly on the nose. In another breath she's slipped into the floor and comes sliding out of a corner holding a scrap of paper and an incredibly beat up looking pen. With a series of unnecessarily aggressive strokes, she quickly scrabbles out a list of names. They're nonsense, mainly: minor celebrities from before the world fell, and a few other noteworthy names like Veronica Peters, one time assistant secretary to the Mayor of Halcyon City. All pointless. Stupid. At the bottom she jots down the names of a handful of doctors, and then underlines one so fiercely it tears a hole in the page: Antoine Ravenelle. She flicks the paper with contempt at Set and crushes her pen to bits, which may well have been a mercy for the poor thing.

"You will memorize this list. These are your demands. You will steal the listed names from the petty overlord by any means necessary, and you will [i]not[/i] fail. It is imperative that you do not. Your golden ticket expires at midnight, and this is the price it will fetch. You will do this by telling the truth. You will tell him that I am out tonight, that I am seeking Shamash, and that with the slightest motion of my lips I will spill his deepest secrets before the god themself, and all the revelers drawn into their wake. You will tell him that the price of a silent evening and a clean bill of health for his name will be these names, lifted up and freed into the care of a safe place of your choosing. You will not drop names from this list. Memorize it and destroy it. Take in every detail. Wield them like swords, Set."

Marianne unfolds her arms and steps into the shadows, more literally than most. Her presence fades from the room for one moment. Two. Three. Her head comes creeping out of the wall again, and she flashes a wide and wolfish grin. 

"I have faith in you, [i]mon petite lapin.[/i] I would not lay this at your feet if I did not. Let that faith be your voice, yes! We are invincible. Uncatchable. We are legion. And by the time they realize the truth of our great cause, it will already be too late. [i]Bonne chase!"[/i]

She cracks her neck, which rings disturbingly through the walls, and disappears for real.