"Enough."

The man in the purple suit's stern voice froze all of the henchmen and goons in their lacklustre assault.

"You're killin' me. Can't even handle a couple of cops."

The henchmen licked their wounds and picked each other up. The one hit by a chair remained resting on the shoulder of the goon that was judo thrown. His groans and wheezing were pained and labourous. The one with shattered fist simply held it to his body and winced through the pain.

He didn't rise or attempt to continue the fight personally. Instead, he barked out a few orders to his men.

"You." He pointed at one of the henchmen who took the rear and thus wasn't assailed by either a chair, fist, or rabid maniac wielding four pint-sized knives. "Get some towels for that moron. And check on the youngest. He's been pissing or puking for a while now."

With a nod, the henchman walked off towards the back of the club, vanishing once he crossed an employees-only door.

"So. I'll ignore with what freakish thing the bug's said for now. To whom do I owe the displeasure?" His words were biting and reticent, but he was at least willing to entertain the technically-trespassing cops for a moment.

The henchman returned in a sprint, a cold sweat running down his brow. In his hand was a towel, but it was clenched tightly.

"S-SIR." The henchman yelled in panic. "Paulie's... his head is... It's..."

The man in the purple suit finished his sentence.

"Exploded?"

The henchman with the towel could only nod.

"Huh. Shit."

---

The Floating District was still FAR too overwhelming, but being there with two others made it a little more tolerable. Enough for a small smirk to play over Dezzie's face for a fraction of a second before returning to deadpan in response to Lorelei's quip, at least. "I feel like if anybody's going to get snatched here," she gestured down at herself, "it's probably going to me. But if Mr. Friendly over here needs a chaperone, then so be--"

As soon as Barbatos let his hand drop onto Dezzie's shoulder her eyes shot wide and her whole body twitched as her words dropped. Her brain stuttered to a stop. Words flew by her, in one ear, out the other. An electric warmth raced up and down her spine. It only lasted a moment, but to her it felt like hours before he patted her and led her towards Lorelei. Her synapses fired again and she snatched herself away and stumbled a few steps. Her hands were shaking, and her whole body was running with a subtle shiver.

As a desk jockey and professional asocial hermit for a decade now, she simply was not prepared for unexpected physical contact. And wearing these clothes instead of her usual starched suit or uniform really didn't help. She sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth.

"Barbatos," she managed to spit with some degree of stability, "do not touch me."

With a second and deeper breath she turned. Her narrowed eyes, expressing a vague discomfort, lingered against Barbatos' for longer than was strictly necessary. Then she devoted her attention to following Lorelei, and the moment was gone.

---

As the three of them arrived at 7th Haven and climbed to the lounge, Dezzie wondered if perhaps she was underdressed for once. As she sat there tooling away on her phone while waiting for Lorelei's contact after inputting the...mildly distasteful password, her eyes kept straying over to Lorelei. A question had been bubbling for a bit now, and she put her phone down into her lap and sighed, but before she could bring herself to ask what she wanted--how did Lorelei know her way around the Floating District so well, how much time had she spent here?--she was cut off by the contact they'd been waiting for. A blonde...human, she thought...? who seemed...off.

There was something clearly wrong with them. She couldn't tell what, but they were sick somehow.

That line of thought, however, was cut off quite cleanly but what Lev called her. "Swingers? Really."

She should've taken the suit. She definitely should've taken the suit. Or at least that one big white jacket with the turtleneck. Heaving a sigh, she stood from her plush seat and inclined her head at Lev.

"Desdemona Smirnova," she bit out. "Not a swinger."

"Oh Lev! You look as delicate as ever!"

Lorelei rose up to greet them, giving the proprietor of 7th Haven a quick hug. He was about as skin-and-bones as she remembered last time, but those were certainly some good skin and bones that he had. Her gaze lingered on the collarbone that peeked out from his loose shirt, before taking a step back. "And life has been quite wonderful as of late. Got a pay bump and a couple of adorable new co-workers, so I thought I'd show them off a bit. I'm sure you'd like them some more than the Section 6 folk that I brought around last time."

At least, from the perspective of having socially well-adjusted customers. From the angle of having money to spend? Well, the cyber-cops often started up further along the pay ladder, if only due to the extra education required to be halfway competent at their work.

She sat down as Lev did, crossing her legs as she turned towards Barbatos. "Oh, Lev and I have known each other for a long while, back when I was still working with Section 2. Bit of a long story, Barbs, but the gist of it was that it involved a fiery romance and kickstarted his smoking habit."

If Lev wanted to add more, she'd let him, but there was business to be done.

"We're looking into the Saniwa today," the woman said after a pause. "Any news from downstairs trickle up about them?"

Lev had reciprocated Lorelei's hug as well as they could.

"Congratulations, congratulations. And your new friends already seem less churlish."

It was a strange handshake, that was for sure. When Barbatos reached out for a handshake, Lev had replied by clasping his hands with their own. Though, it was difficult to tell how much was legitimate flirtation and how much was the innate action of someone who had worked in this industry. In any case, Lev's fingers were thin and cold. Uncomfortably so.

Of course, Dezzie's reaction to the swinger comment made Lev have a soft, airy chuckle.

"Sorry." They said. Though it felt like she said an incomplete thought--as if they refrained from calling Ms. Smirnova some cute pet name like dearie or hon.

When Lorelei spoke of their past, Lev had to playfully add in. "It was a brief experience, but one I'll never forget. My breath was taken away as she carried me in her arms."

It was always fun to play in ambiguity. Lev made a career out of it, after all.

"So I take that it's work and not play," the words came after a brief pause, "how unfortunate."

They took a brief moment to think about the question that Lorelei asked.

"I would assume this is about the massacre last night. News here travels quite fast--most people are trying to keep it quiet as to not disturb business, but anyone working here knows."

Their finger tapped the table in an uneven pattern.

"A few groups were looking to push them out. Unionists are probably the closest, but they lack the members for any sort of territorial conflict outside current borders. And besides--killing people like that isn't how any of those groups operate. They'd prefer to flood the streets and fight in the daylight."

A pensive look came across Lev's face.

"But honestly, it was a long time coming. Saniwa's been getting up to some dangerous things with the wrong people."

Lev took another brief pause and glanced to her side. After, they leaned in and placed their hand upright beside their mouth.

"I've heard rumours of them having a service where you could do anything to someone. But none of the working men and women have gone missing."