Repeat

[Clio Jones]

 Clio had been just about to leave when Marcus arrived, and there was something to be said about his timing, indeed. She listened to he and Eli trade insults, however more politely his seemed to be dealt - which was actually kind of funny, because he sounded just like Sal - but honestly, she couldn't really say she was paying attention to anything that was being said. Oh, she heard noise that sounded like talking, and later she'd probably dissect every word and analyze it for her own obsessive benefit, but right now? She finished her martini in one long gulp as the men took little stabs at eachother, and got everyone's attention by thumping her glass down on the table.

"I'm staying," she said abruptly, literally cutting Sal off. The way she said it made it sound like any argument was going to be met with more of whatever sudden attitude that was, and she softened the harshness of her announcement by smiling in her beautiful, glamorous way, and softening her expression. It was important to note that she was looking at him and only him as she cleared some of her blonde hair from the shoulder of her dark red dress and held out her hand to him.

"So lovely to meet you finally, Mr. Walker," she said.

She heard Eli make a choking noise behind them and decided he was damned lucky she couldn't touch him, or she'd have kicked him right in his shin as soon as she sat down at that table.

[Marcus Walker]

Finding the man he'd mostly heard of as Agent Vance Burress seated at the table with Sal and a frankly gorgeous blonde may have surprised Marcus, but he brushed it off quickly enough for some small level of satisfaction over the surprise from the Agent himself upon realizing who was joining them.  Both of their reputations obviously preceded them, but his carried a little more weight; not that he wasn't impressed with Agent Sterling's work, because he'd heard some very impressive things in that regard, but Marcus killed things for a living and Eli did not.  He could understand why Sterling might get a little flustered over his presence, even expected it, but it didn't stop him from pushing his advantage to ensure that whatever he had to do here wasn't made more difficult.  If Sterling knew that he knew who he really was, then the chances that he'd take stupid risks under the assumption that he had safety in his aliases would drop.  Marcus may not actually drop by his house and murder him and anyone he held dear, but the 'monster' rumors certainly implied much more than he was guilty of.

The 'threat' got some aggression back, which was about what he expected from a man of Sterling's resume, but Marcus didn't walk into any situation half-cocked if he could help it.  He wanted to know who Godric's little friend was, and he was both impressed and intrigued - if Sterling was this involved with Godric, then there was a lot more to him than even Marcus knew right about then.  Hidden depths.

Then, of course, there was Miss Clio Jones, who was supposedly leaving, which was a damn shame, until Sal almost had the words out and she downed her martini all at once, set the glass down a little too hard and declared that she'd do no such thing.  Her eye contact with him as she did this was flawless, which had to mean something, but he was far too involved with the blue or her eyes, that glowing smile and the gold in her hair as she tossed it over her shoulder and offered her hand to him.  For all of those reasons and countless more that he didn't consider in the moment, he stood once more to take her hand, a bit of a curious smile curving over his lips as he regarded her.  She was...enchanting.

"You say 'finally' like you've been waiting.  I hope not too long," he said, even as he could hear Sterling make some unpleasant sound, but Marcus was surprisingly unconcerned with him.  Instead, he only released her hand because of social requirements and to pull out a chair for her.  "Please, I'd be delighted if you joined us."

[Clio Jones]

 She bit back a laugh as he said he hoped she hadn't been waiting too long - that would never get old, did he have to say that every lifetime? She supposed she always gave him the opportunity, though, didn't she? It had become almost sequential, though some versions of him were more skeptical than others. This one would probably be a task of great undertaking - men with his reputation didn't often concern themselves with women for long, however beautiful they might have been.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she said smoothly, smiling again at him. When he pulled out the chair for her, she inclined her head. "Thank you, Mr. Walker," she said graciously. She took her seat, positively ensconced with him right up until the point that Sal cleared his throat and shook the ice in his glass to signal he was ready for another drink. The boy came back 'round for Walker's order, and they all made their requests, though Clio politely declined - for now. She was going to have to play this one close to the chest, and alcohol wouldn't help her do that very well.

"Gentlemen," Sal said, figuring at this point that the night couldn't get any weirder. "What exactly are we going to do about our little... problem?"

The moment they mentioned that Fae were involved, Clio would have plenty of input - but right up until that point, she kept quiet, mostly trying not to stare at Marcus. She would have to research him, of course, but his reputation didn't bother her at all. There had been a few instances where the roles had been significantly reversed, after all - fair was fair.

[Marcus Walker]

She seemed amused by his comment, which he hadn't expected to be funny at all, but she already confused him a little.  He was going to ask Godric about her after this meeting, because she was already far more distracting than other women he'd met, and while he could attribute some of that to her beauty, he had been around beautiful monsters in the past.  That wasn't it.  Was she human?  Unlikely, though he'd guessed so when he initially walked up.  That he intended to ask after her already said something.

"I guess not, but I'd still like to hear it," he told her, and he may have surprised himself by meaning it.  He was more than capable of charming a lovely young woman and had on occasion, but flirtations were typically not meant to be anything more than that.  There was a task required of them, but he was far more interested in the lovely little puzzle seated beside him than the scotch on the rocks he'd ordered or the prompting from Sal.

Sal, who was looking at him like he was the puzzle, while Sterling simply looked irritated as all hell.  "Maybe you should start by outlining exactly what your little 'problem' is, Mr. Godric, and then perhaps I can tell you what I can do about it.  Right now, all I know is that you seem to have a serious monster problem that someone tried to fix by bringing in an even bigger monster."

"That's fair.  You should tell Aristide how much you approve of his plan," Eli remarked into his drink, finishing it off because a refill was showing up with Marcus' first, and he was going to enjoy two or three.  He sure as hell couldn't go any further, not and risk sloppy movement with his condition, but Sal didn't bother even acknowledging Eli's comments.

"A practitioner by the name of Baron Lazare sprung the locks keeping the fae underdark from getting anywhere near our world, and it's been widening ever since.  The last time anything like this happened was back in the early 1900's, it was half the glimpse we're currently getting and we still haven't heard the end of it thanks to that crackpot writer.  Bigger nasties are coming through every day, and I don't, for one, want to know if Cthulhu was actually in there or just a figment of that moron's imagination."

"You know I don't take on fae lightly, Sal," Marcus offered quietly, to which the man waved his hand like that was a minor thing.

"These are ancient things, primal and not very bright.  The bigger ones are just powerful, and getting moreso.  The guilds are trying to balance them, but Aristide pulled Lucifer out of his box as a much bigger fix.  He's been effective, if nothing else, because he seems to think letting a bunch of creepy crawlies ravage his world before he takes it over is disgusting, but he's going to win and we need a plan for putting him down when he does."

"You called me to kill the Devil himself?"

"Rumor has it you're the one you call when you want to kill the boogeyman.  No bigger boogey than this," Eli offered, but he didn't look too keen on the whole thing.

"I'm not sure killing him is even possible, so both of you just relax.  We need to put him back in his cage, though."

This was not in his job description.

[Clio Jones]

 Clio was all but ensconced by Mr. Walker, which was obvious by the way that she blatantly kept staring at him over her drink. It wouldn't have been obvious to outsiders, of course, but Sal noticed and Eli definitely noticed. She doubted she'd have to do much in the way of explaining to Eli, at least - Sal, on the other hand... She'd be dodging those questions for the rest of this lifetime.

She had her second one by the time the actual meat of the conversation was hit. At the mention of Fae, her pretty features visibly twisted into a grim expression. She dropped her olive into her glass with a loud splash, then rubbed her fingers against one another in distaste. "Because of course it would be Fae," she muttered.

Her remarks didn't go unnoticed but were ignored in favor of the solution - which wasn't really a solution at all. Lucifer to kill the Fae, and then Marcus to kill Lucifer? No, that wouldn't do.

"Gentlemen, if I may - I'm (sadly) somewhat of an expert in the dealings of the Fae, both Light and Dark - and beyond. The things you're referring to are called the Sluagh, and I don't quite know that your crowned Prince of Darkness can deliver on the promise of putting them away." In reality, he might, but she didn't doubt in the least that it would involve drug-dealing with either Baron Lazare or, even worse, Taranis, the current and undisputed reigning Lord of the Underdark. Prick. She held back on her thoughts of the devil, though - that would probably show too much of her history.

"I have a far better alternative than the body-snatching denizen of Hell. I know of one person, here, living today, who has not only become ace at defeating Sluagh and the ilk, but actually lived and survived in that "other" world for several years." She was speaking of course of Teddy McClane. The irony in the fact that she was suggesting someone who had angelic lineage over the very first angel was lost on all of them, because nobody really knew about that part yet.

[Marcus Walker]

To be fair, nobody in the room really thought that Lucifer had been a good idea, or that killing him was much of an option.  Eli was being a dick when he pointed out that there was no bigger Boogeyman, but he did get that containing Lucifer was now an issue.  His contacts in the guilds also suggested that they were only barely keeping a lid on this mess as it stood, and a few government agencies that would never publicly admit their opinions on such matters seemed very concerned about a few 'incidents' that had cropped up.  Cleaning this up as soon as possible was really a necessity, even without his own personal stakes in it.  That didn't entirely mean he was fully on board with all of this, though he certainly couldn't miss Clio's obvious interest in Walker.  He just didn't like it. 

He liked it so little, in fact, that there was some part of him that actually wanted to literally text her from across the table in an attempt to make her explain what the hell was going on, even if he had a damn good idea that he already knew.  Walker had seriously better not be that person she was waiting for, damn it.  Eli couldn't help watching the other two men at the table, obviously forced to be involved in the topic at hand, but looking for reactions to Clio.  He was getting them.

Sal was quietly observing her, a little narrowing of his eyes the only real indication that he hadn't let it go in favor of listening to what she had to offer as a solution, but it was there.  He wasn't nearly so out of the loop that he'd have to question her endlessly like she was afraid of, but he'd have some very pointed queries, namely regarding the extent of her curse and what Walker's place in it was.  There was a chance he had an idea, as well, but he was less certain than Eli simply from lack of information.  He wasn't the most out of the loop at the table, however, and that pleased him to some degree.  Walker himself was addressing the situation professionally and exactly as Sal could have expected, but his attention was split just enough for a sharp eye to notice when his eyes would flick over to Clio, whether she was talking or merely fussing with her drink. 

"Sounds like you called the wrong guy, Sal," Walker pointed out, leaning back from the table just the slightest bit. 

"Not too fast.  Having McClane as a back-up to help get rid of these Sluagh if Lucifer doesn't fully deliver or pulls a fast one is important, but he's still on the loose, and we can't have that.  Aristide has a plan, but with something of this magnitude, I want some insurance in place so we don't bring about the actual end of the world.  Considering who we're dealing with, we need to plan for a double-cross."

[Clio Jones]

 If Clio had the knowledge that only Lucifer held in that nugget of his, she would have known that there were plenty of ways to tantalize and otherwise utterly distract his body-snatching ass long enough for them to put him back in check. But she didn't, and honestly, it would take a mighty large prospect to deviate his attention entirely from completely fucking over the people who had cut him loose in the first place. Boy was he going to be pissed when he found out about the rules of jumping bodies, though. Time was on his side, indeed - but not lineage.

But Clio didn't know that. Any input she could offer on Lucifer would more or less boil down to "don't trust him" and nobody sitting at that table was fool enough to trust him, soooo that sort of left her ass out on advice. She could deal with him, but even still, her presence would probably just inspire him to splatter her across a wall like he'd done a few times before - just for fun. If there was anything the Prince o' Darkness hated, it was an immortal who didn't want to be that way. And as luck would have it for Clio, she'd had a habit of making bets with him over the ages and winning, and if the song about him fiddling his way to pitfall was any indication, the devil hated to lose a bet.

"Too bad we don't know any angelic types that aren't stingy with their help," she said finally. She was sure there were, among them in the registrar that Sal kept, individuals who had angelic blood, but it was probably so diluted down it would be more or less something shiny for Lucifer to break in two. Only Teddy really had tapped into his, not that she knew, and the Smoke siblings having angelic blood was something only Benjamin knew about and that motherfucker was probably next in line for Lucifer's spot in Hell if he ever got permanently offed or keyed away in some box for eternity.

She looked at Sal, pointedly. "We don't... do we?" Because if anyone would know, it would be him. Beneath the table, she absently brushed Walker's shoe with her own, and though the look on her face said 'accident', the smile after didn't.