Manuel & Adrienne

[x-empath.livejournal.com]

Manuel and Adrienne attend a Hellfire club meeting and they discuss ulterior motives to the black court before bantering back and forth.

Manuel picked a piece of skin off his nail as he leaned against a column, one of six, in the middle of the room, casually listening in on emotions as he would when eavesdropping in on a conversation. He could catch the tone of between the two conversing, the vague interest in one, the hidden genuine interest in the other and a shift of underlying anxiousness that pulled him deeper into the subconscious of emotional desires. The deeper he probed, more resistance pushed from that person until a pause of their confusion broke him away and his focus fell directly back on Adrienne who stood beside him, retuning to their personal murmurs to each other, idol gossip here and there whenever anyone of interest passed.

"And that's how I orchestrated my very first orgy," Adrienne said cheerfully when she noticed Manuel's attention returning to her. He hadn't been listening to anything she'd been saying anyway. "Get anything interesting off that couple?" she inquired quietly, arching an eyebrow towards the people Manuel had been focusing on.

"Only who will be in bed with who tonight," he replied absently. "Other than that, nothing of interest. This is a very drab party, is it not?" Manuel asked, pushing off of the column he was leaning against and contemplating a drink of some sort. The bartender looked busy and it only re enforced that he should probably stay where he was.

He watched a man of no particular substance walk by and begin to introduce himself to another, who was clearly a member of the black court. "Hello, I am Mundane, boring and I cannot pick the appropriate outfit for this occasion," he supplied the context. "And you are?"

"A man who enjoys doing things to ducks you can only dream about. But I might settle for you if you're willing to put out," Adrienne answered in a voice she thought fitting for the Black Court member. "Very drab," she agreed. "But I'm okay with that because drab must mean Wyngarde isn't here." She wasn't afraid of Wyngarde, but she wasn't completely comfortable around the man, either, and had no doubt that Manuel could pick up on the slight nerves that thoughts of the man brought on.

"Senor Wyngarde is a busy man," Manuel replied. "Like Shaw, he is up to more than he lets on." He checked his watch. "How long do you think the shrimp has been sitting out?" Fish was never agreeable to him if it sat out more than a half hour.

"Too long for me to take a chance on it, so more than five minutes," she answered with a shrug. "Ever since you had to nurse me after that bad fish I ate, I've been staying away from anything coming out of the sea." Making a face, she glanced around the room for signs of Wyngarde or Shaw. "You don't have any idea what that 'more' they're up to is, do you? Is that what we're here to find out?"

"I have a vague notion of what they are up to, but what they are planning is entirely different. Shaw's been.... intercepting much concerning the information I am recieving. I feel as though he is hearing what I am hearing and moving his pieces accordingly, knowing I report back to Emma. We are, in essence, playing chess."

"I should be meeting the people you usually meet with and receive the information for you," Adrienne suggested, sipping at her champagne, "because as far as Shaw knows I don't report to anyone. I'm my own chess piece," she grinned. She didn't think it likely that Manuel would let her do any of his information-gathering for him, but it was worth asking, and Manuel might surprise her by putting a desire to see Shaw lose some chess pieces ahead of his own pride.

"You are still a Frost," Manuel replied drily. "He will suspect. No, I believe this is something much more personal between him and I and I am curious to explore it. "

Adrienne gave him a wry smile. She'd assumed that Emma had told her White Court what Adrienne had encountered when she'd met Wyngarde, but maybe she hadn't. "He won't suspect," she assured Manuel, though her tone implied that she was only telling him so he would be informed, not to press the issue of doing his information-gathering for him. "I've got Shaw and Wyngarde thinking I'm out to steal Emma's throne, which is exactly what I want them to think."

"If I was in any Black court position, I would be very untrusting to anyone that had the name of Frost behind it. I am living proof that you cannot trust a de la Rocha," he replied evenly, gesturing for them to go get a drink. His throat was dry and he needed substance.

"But you don't publicly fight with your family though, do you?" she pointed out with a smirk, following him to the nearest waiter with a drinks tray. "Emma and I despise each other-" at least as far as anyone not Emma or Adrienne was concerned- "and it's a well-known fact that I'm a power-grubbing self-preservationist who's wanted everything my sister has since I was old enough to speak. Your point about being naturally untrusting to any Frost is valid, though," she conceded. "I'll just have to work harder to get Shaw to trust me, I suppose. So why do you think Shaw's dredging up your personal tie with him now, after spending so long leaving you alone?" Because of Lense's death, she wondered?

"Because I was in a coma?" Manuel said, casting a pointed look at her. "And--" he said, by passing a waiter to go to the bartender. "-- he has always wanted me in the black courts. Just like my father." It was a game, always a game between the white and black. Manuel said nothing about how Shaw waived his admittance back into the inner court and a few contacts had mentioned it on the fly.

Like planting a seed and watching it grow. "Scotch please - dry," he said to the bartender and gestured for her to place an order, that he would pay for it himself.

She'd meant after the coma, but wasn't going to bother pointing that out. After a couple seconds of desperately wishing for a beer, Adrienne ordered a glass of their finest shiraz and nodded a thanks at Manny for paying for it. "So Shaw is trying to win you away from Emma?" Was he insane? "Seems like a pretty dangerous gamble. I mean, you're the one who just said that you can't be trusted by Shaw." Sipping her wine, she shook her head incredulously. "And then there's the angle of why would he try to get you into his Court when you're already a member of Emma's? I mean, if you had even the slightest inkling to ditch Emma for Shaw, why would you still be alive?" Emma could kill dissenters with her brain, could she not? "Shaw couldn't effectively protect you from Emma's wrath," she pointed out. "It doesn't make sense for you to switch sides. How can Shaw think otherwise?"

"It is all speculation Adrienne. I have no ideas to his motivations. Only assumptions based on what I have heard." He paused to take a healthy dose of his drink before he lowered it and moved them to a more private location.

"I have had a few warnings," he said. "However I do not think it is anything to be overly concerned about at this point."

"Maybe he's gay and he wants you for a boy toy," Adrienne snorted, amusing herself.
"How's Garrison?" Manuel retorted.

"Uh, what? Fine, I think?" He'd caught her completely off guard. Did he know she'd been thinking about going to Harry's to watch the game with Kane since the topic of beer had gotten into her head? "Pretty sure he's straight, too, so I'm not sure what he has to do with Shaw being gay and trying to recruit you for a boy toy," she smirked.

"I thought I would ignore your immaturity and try to keep you on a topic that doesn't involve degrading your intellect a few notches. How wrong I was to try," Manuel replied dryly, watching a pair of blackcourt members behind the rim of his glass.

"It would do you good to act more immature some of the time," Adrienne grinned. "If you act like a fifty year-old man all the time, it's going to start to affect you. Besides, you said it yourself, this party's drab. I have to act mature in front of everyone else, I should be allowed to act immature with you." She didn't know why exactly, but it made sense in her head. Maybe because Manuel was the only person here who knew what was behind the businesswoman mask she wore with the Courts.

"If you had known me before the coma, you would agree that I had filled my quota for immaturity a long time ago. I find being the fifty year-old man trapped in a twenty five year old's body is very effective. Less angst you see. Less to worry about as well."

Adrienne conceded with a smile and a shrug. "Yes, I suppose you're right, I haven't known you very long." Sometimes it seemed like she'd been at the school forever and she forgot she'd known Manuel less than two years. "And it's nice not to have to worry about you getting into immature shenanigans," she smirked. "Not that I would worry about you. I have a reputation as an ice queen, you know. Can't be worrying about people. What say we go circulate and spread some rumours about who's going to be sleeping with whom tonight?" she suggested wickedly. "Is that too immature?"

His drink was polished off but he was far from finished. "I believe, Miss Frost, that would be a wonderful reprieve from the drudgery of tonight's duties."