Melody Plays
Macchiato
Grumpy Rabbit
- Location
- Girt by sea
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Renmi's not my fav. I'd never been before this trip and I didn't think I'd be coming back. The trail of Renmi informants who'd failed to please and suffered the consequences certainly didn't help either. And my less than illustrious colleagues trying to stab me in the back just pushed more rice under my skin. Best persuasion tool ever, by the way. The expressions it brings out on people's faces is better than sex. Just kidding, not really. It's what comes out of their mouths because of it that makes it the best.
It started as soon as we landed. Daisy Connor was with me and she seemed to think she was in charge because she'd been around longer. Not a chance. After the third or fourth time I'd giggled when she was trying to plan what we were going to do, I thought she took the hint. But as soon as we got off the boat, she tried to kill me. Like seriously. That's so insulting. And it wasn't even in a fun way, she tried to put something in my drink. Puh-lease. Master poisoner over here, helloooo.
She obviously hadn't done her research. I knew Hamid wouldn't like it very much if I got rid of her, which was really the only reason she's still breathing. Anyway, she covered her surprise pretty well. And I didn't leave scars anywhere obvious so it's fine.
Once that was sorted, we got down to the hunt. Renmi are very helpful. They're like me, they look after themselves. Except I have a sense of shame. Makes them useless as spies and informants, though. At any sign of a threat, they're gone, even under threat of removed limbs or ironing their cut skin over rice grains. Nothing. Not big long-term thinkers, Renmi. Very inconvenient.
Fortunately, there were loose ends to be found and we started following them, mostly in the form of Renmi girls who had some...memorable custom. After all, it's not every day that Renmi girls get to see Sartierans in their beds, and ones rumoured to be favoured by the occupying force, too. Obedience just ticks boxes for some people, and that desire to survive whatever the cost that the Renmi have could definitely be that. Fortunately, that also means they spill the beans pretty quickly. So we got some leads there.
But then it started getting troublesome. All those leads seemed to get us nowhere. Daisy and I used everything in our arsenal, trying to chase down leads, but we kept hitting dead ends. So frustrating. Whenever we thought we had a breakthrough, it seemed like we'd just missed our prey.
Then I got landed with another piece of baggage. Phedre Dell. She'd been sent out by House Vincennes to pretty much do what me and Daisy were doing, but I think Vincennes wanted a backup plan. Anyway, she wasn't getting any joy either, so after she realised we were here, too, she asked if we could join up together.
She'd mostly done what we'd already done, so we were still more or less where we started. Oh, except that she'd realised there was another group of Sartierans here. I guess that helped a bit because it put us onto Olivia Feliste and her handy dandy assassin buddy Richard.
As it turns out, they weren't here for the same reason we were, necessarily. They were really here to get Angelica Laine back, that girl that disappeared at the same time. Any collateral damage that happened along the way was all to the good, but I think they were trusting us to do what needed to be done. Lucky for them our interests overlapped there.
But tricky tricky Olivia. She was a Teuvian on the down low and was actually only pretending to help. If she'd gotten her hands on Angelica, I bet she would've offed her. Which might've been okay if I could watch, but Richard seems like he would've objected to that so I guess it's better we didn't.
It didn't get to that point, obviously, but she did cause us an awful lot of hassle in the meantime. Feeding us bad information, sneaking off to tip you off so you could get away just in time. We took care of them once we figured this out, of course. And now here we are.
---
"You've given me a fine chase, Arnold," purred Melody, "but we're nearing the finale." Arnold, being gagged for the moment, could not reply although he jerked rather defiantly in his bonds.
"Uh Melody, can I talk to you over here for a second?" intruded Daisy. Melody grimaced and flounced over to the former Spymaster heir apparent.
"What, I was just getting started."
"Yeah, and that's great, we all appreciated the totally-not-insulting storytelling you did there. But I just want to make sure we're on the same page and we're bringing him back alive." Daisy glowered at her counterpart. She hadn't appreciated much of anything about how this whole venture had turned out, which she hadn't made a secret of.
Melody frowned at Daisy, "No. Why would we?"
"Well, I just thought since we had the option, that it might be more useful..." Daisy trailed off.
"That was your first problem, thinking. No, I'll get what I can out of him and we'll bring his head back. Plus, it's way easier to do than trying to bring a struggling prisoner." She ignored the Daisy death glare aimed at her. They both knew that if they tried to put it to a vote, Melody would win. All Phedre cared about was making sure Arnold was dealt with.
"Now, leave me alone with Arnold to take care of business, and then we can get out of this song-forsaken place," she patted Daisy lightly on the cheek.
Melody turned away and smiled to herself as she heard the angry stride of Daisy retreating, followed by the door slamming shortly afterwards.
Returning to the bound man, Melody pulled out the gag and surveyed him, arms crossed.
"Someone's in trouble," she crooned lovingly.
"Lady, you're batshit," spat Arnold.
She tilted her head, bird-like, "Maybe." A smile spread slowly, "But I'm not the one tied and at my mercy, so I'd start thinking about how you'll make your pain stop faster."
"What the fuck are you on about, woman," Arnold said, shaken despite his bluster.
"Dead or alive was the directive. But there wasn't anything said about what we needed to in between, if anything," Melody noted conversationally as she circled Arnold. "I'm sure there is plenty of lovely information in that head of yours. The question is how long you'll hold onto it."
"You wouldn't…"
"Darling, I'm not one of your precious nobles. I don't have sensitivities about dirtying my hands. The human body is such a beautiful, unique instrument to play. And I," she leaned over, licking the sweat trickling down his face, "am a virtuoso."
---
Beautiful, but delicato. The scales can only be played so many times before the strain becomes too much. Even human vocal chords fray under too much pressure, after all.
But oh the arpeggios that can be produced before then. The lento tug of fingernail, the crescendo and then sostenuto of pain. I shudder at the purity of it. Soon I will have to gag him again, lest we draw too much attention.
This is merely the prelude to a glorious composition.
It started as soon as we landed. Daisy Connor was with me and she seemed to think she was in charge because she'd been around longer. Not a chance. After the third or fourth time I'd giggled when she was trying to plan what we were going to do, I thought she took the hint. But as soon as we got off the boat, she tried to kill me. Like seriously. That's so insulting. And it wasn't even in a fun way, she tried to put something in my drink. Puh-lease. Master poisoner over here, helloooo.
She obviously hadn't done her research. I knew Hamid wouldn't like it very much if I got rid of her, which was really the only reason she's still breathing. Anyway, she covered her surprise pretty well. And I didn't leave scars anywhere obvious so it's fine.
Once that was sorted, we got down to the hunt. Renmi are very helpful. They're like me, they look after themselves. Except I have a sense of shame. Makes them useless as spies and informants, though. At any sign of a threat, they're gone, even under threat of removed limbs or ironing their cut skin over rice grains. Nothing. Not big long-term thinkers, Renmi. Very inconvenient.
Fortunately, there were loose ends to be found and we started following them, mostly in the form of Renmi girls who had some...memorable custom. After all, it's not every day that Renmi girls get to see Sartierans in their beds, and ones rumoured to be favoured by the occupying force, too. Obedience just ticks boxes for some people, and that desire to survive whatever the cost that the Renmi have could definitely be that. Fortunately, that also means they spill the beans pretty quickly. So we got some leads there.
But then it started getting troublesome. All those leads seemed to get us nowhere. Daisy and I used everything in our arsenal, trying to chase down leads, but we kept hitting dead ends. So frustrating. Whenever we thought we had a breakthrough, it seemed like we'd just missed our prey.
Then I got landed with another piece of baggage. Phedre Dell. She'd been sent out by House Vincennes to pretty much do what me and Daisy were doing, but I think Vincennes wanted a backup plan. Anyway, she wasn't getting any joy either, so after she realised we were here, too, she asked if we could join up together.
She'd mostly done what we'd already done, so we were still more or less where we started. Oh, except that she'd realised there was another group of Sartierans here. I guess that helped a bit because it put us onto Olivia Feliste and her handy dandy assassin buddy Richard.
As it turns out, they weren't here for the same reason we were, necessarily. They were really here to get Angelica Laine back, that girl that disappeared at the same time. Any collateral damage that happened along the way was all to the good, but I think they were trusting us to do what needed to be done. Lucky for them our interests overlapped there.
But tricky tricky Olivia. She was a Teuvian on the down low and was actually only pretending to help. If she'd gotten her hands on Angelica, I bet she would've offed her. Which might've been okay if I could watch, but Richard seems like he would've objected to that so I guess it's better we didn't.
It didn't get to that point, obviously, but she did cause us an awful lot of hassle in the meantime. Feeding us bad information, sneaking off to tip you off so you could get away just in time. We took care of them once we figured this out, of course. And now here we are.
---
"You've given me a fine chase, Arnold," purred Melody, "but we're nearing the finale." Arnold, being gagged for the moment, could not reply although he jerked rather defiantly in his bonds.
"Uh Melody, can I talk to you over here for a second?" intruded Daisy. Melody grimaced and flounced over to the former Spymaster heir apparent.
"What, I was just getting started."
"Yeah, and that's great, we all appreciated the totally-not-insulting storytelling you did there. But I just want to make sure we're on the same page and we're bringing him back alive." Daisy glowered at her counterpart. She hadn't appreciated much of anything about how this whole venture had turned out, which she hadn't made a secret of.
Melody frowned at Daisy, "No. Why would we?"
"Well, I just thought since we had the option, that it might be more useful..." Daisy trailed off.
"That was your first problem, thinking. No, I'll get what I can out of him and we'll bring his head back. Plus, it's way easier to do than trying to bring a struggling prisoner." She ignored the Daisy death glare aimed at her. They both knew that if they tried to put it to a vote, Melody would win. All Phedre cared about was making sure Arnold was dealt with.
"Now, leave me alone with Arnold to take care of business, and then we can get out of this song-forsaken place," she patted Daisy lightly on the cheek.
Melody turned away and smiled to herself as she heard the angry stride of Daisy retreating, followed by the door slamming shortly afterwards.
Returning to the bound man, Melody pulled out the gag and surveyed him, arms crossed.
"Someone's in trouble," she crooned lovingly.
"Lady, you're batshit," spat Arnold.
She tilted her head, bird-like, "Maybe." A smile spread slowly, "But I'm not the one tied and at my mercy, so I'd start thinking about how you'll make your pain stop faster."
"What the fuck are you on about, woman," Arnold said, shaken despite his bluster.
"Dead or alive was the directive. But there wasn't anything said about what we needed to in between, if anything," Melody noted conversationally as she circled Arnold. "I'm sure there is plenty of lovely information in that head of yours. The question is how long you'll hold onto it."
"You wouldn't…"
"Darling, I'm not one of your precious nobles. I don't have sensitivities about dirtying my hands. The human body is such a beautiful, unique instrument to play. And I," she leaned over, licking the sweat trickling down his face, "am a virtuoso."
---
Beautiful, but delicato. The scales can only be played so many times before the strain becomes too much. Even human vocal chords fray under too much pressure, after all.
But oh the arpeggios that can be produced before then. The lento tug of fingernail, the crescendo and then sostenuto of pain. I shudder at the purity of it. Soon I will have to gag him again, lest we draw too much attention.
This is merely the prelude to a glorious composition.
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