Lemons

Umbra Rose Condos

Ay, sorry for the delay and the brevity of the post. Been traveling and all, hard to find time to write.

Umbra Rose Condos

_{Late Afternoon
Building 1 Cafeteria
Interacting with: @Massasauga Rebecca @Xaltwind Miyuki @CitrusArms Yumeiko}

---

Velvet eyed Miyuki carefully as she flounced back to her room, armed now with the terrible knowledge of Floor 4, Room 7. Ten minutes ago, she probably would've planned some variety of prank; but not only were pranks harder to do when you were metaphysically disallowed from entering, she kinda...didn't want make the kyuubi any angrier right now. That shit was frightening. She was mulling the information over in her head when her thoughts were interrupted by Wolverine Girl:

"Yeah sure thing, kid."

A sharp breath, and her voice snapped out hotter than she'd meant for it to. "I--you--I'm not a child! Everyone was this tall when I was born except nobility! It was normal! I'm not short!"

There was little that got a rise out of Velvet like comments her height. Back before her long sleep, she was a feared queen of the night, terrifying children all over Europe and Asia. She took what she wanted, when she wanted it; a looming threat that lurked just beyond the light.

Now I can't even reach the highest shelf!

Crossing her arms with a sullen look on her face, she gave a loud hmph! A moment later, she exhaled slowly to reclaim her calm, then glanced over at Yumeiko. "I think I remember someone talking about a sushi joint not too far away. Not weird modern sushi but like, pretty nice sashimi and junk. I never tried it myself, it usually closes before sunset and sushi's not my favorite food, but if you're in the mood, it's probably still open at this time of day."

An almighty shrug followed. "Or, I dunno. You mentioned Japanese, but I don't know how much we've got around here." She didn't care too much where she was called on to go; mostly she just wanted to go. It was started to get less and less bearable being around Wolverine Girl in the enclosed space. Eugh. Seriously, what was that?

Umbra Rose Condos

Oh boy Velvet is going to feel all kind of ways about being called 'kid' and none of them are great lmao

Hell on Earth: Supernatural & Demonic Detectives

---

A pinch of the bridge of the nose, a rub of sore, tired eyes as she leaned back against a clean spot on the wall. Both things that were almost universal gestures for Dezzie. Frustration and confusion.

The triple-shot cappuccino lay untouched by the entrance where she'd placed it carefully down after she realized that the brand-new red stains were the remnants of people, so add exhaustion to the roster too. The damn thing was cold by now anyway. She'd never worked with Section 7 before, and seeing some of the characters that they had on staff now and then, she wasn't sure she wanted to be if this was the kind of thing they dealt with on a regular basis.

And, of course, there was some horror there too, and no small amount. If the audit hadn't been at 9 o'clock in the morning--if she hadn't gone to get coffee after a long night spent poring over what the database said on the Saniwas and grousing about having to go to an audit--then she'd probably be a splatter of paint right now too. And in her particular line of work, she wasn't exactly used to seeing this level of carnage. She was just...really good at ignoring it.

Man. Lantanas were her favorite flower, too.

She'd given a brief statement to the one who was in charge of the whole operation; Armand something-or-other. But it wasn't much to go on. Now the vaunted and mysterious Section 7 were having a little powwow. She opened her eyes again, ceased rubbing her nose, and walked in to join the circle. Was she specifically invited? No, no she was not, and the question the boss-man was asking was almost certainly not directed at her. But she was the closest they had to a witness, so she had just as much right to talk as any of 'em.

A fly guy--rather, a guy that was in fact a fly--was speaking (buzzing?) now. What he was saying was interesting and relevant, certainly. The lack of any other forms of life, any scavengers, was certainly an important puzzle piece, even if she didn't understand it right now. Still. She turned her white-pupiled eyes on him, fixing him with a flat stare.

"Head cheese," she said tonelessly. "'Got the big idea.' All you can eat sausage buffet." Her lip curled up with a hint of mild contempt. "Show some respect to the dead."

With that, she looked over to the gray-skinned...human? She felt like a human, but also not like a human, and not just because she had concrete-colored skin...who was now approaching as she said her piece. She hmmed, glancing up to the ceiling as she thought.

"Okay, sure, I'd buy that a demon who could do this would be slapped with every kind of curse, and we've had a few cases in cybersec about unlicensed use of contracts." She crossed her arms, cocked her head to the side.

"But even disregarding the license, when one is established with a powerful demon they need to curse them to restrict their magic anyway, and I don't think I've ever heard of an artifact that can do something like this. They're far too specific, and they don't have anywhere near this kind of power regardless."

Then, finally, she turned to the group at large, flashing her ID card and, with a quick application of magic, making sure her uniform fell on her perfectly. "Dezzie Smirnova, Section 6, cybersec." She yawned heavily. "Whatever caused this worked fast. I stepped out for coffee. Ten minutes, fifteen tops. When I got back it was already done. I think it's probably a human too since a curse is easier to get around with two points of connection. But I'm not usually one for field work, and a curse has to be circumvented either way, so don't count on it 100%."

Hell on Earth: Supernatural & Demonic Detectives

Oh Lorelei got recruited first for sure. As it is, Dezzie is still in Section 6. The whole first arc is basically her recruitment arc.

Hell on Earth: Supernatural & Demonic Detectives

@ERode Oooh, Lorelei spent time in Section 6? Think she knows Dezzie, the Employee Of The Month Every Month?

Hell on Earth: Supernatural & Demonic Detectives

Oh shit @BurningCold I finally remembered where I've seen you before! VotD, Mortalmo!

Hell on Earth: Supernatural & Demonic Detectives

Basically all I care about is that Othello exists and is in a prison where visiting is allowed, and Dezzie's mom is dead. Other than that go wild.

Hell on Earth: Supernatural & Demonic Detectives

Dezzie

"Yes, yes, I'm aware, this is not the typical line of work for one of my kind. How about this, maybe shut up about it?"
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Name: Desdemona Alexandria Smirnova (but please, call her Dezzie.)

Age: 51, though she appears in her late twenties or early thirties

Gender: Femme

Race: Demon (specifically, a succubus.)

Description: As a succubus, Dezzie can change her appearance, at least to some extent. But as a general rule, these days she comes back to a fairly consistent 'base' that she's decided that she likes. Five foot five and slender, she has successfully accomplished her goal of looking mostly unobtrusive, compared to a lot of the city's demonic populace. She has long, pin-straight white hair with a single black lock that fall in between her dull magenta eyes, usually worn loose or tied up and pinned back in a smart bun; and poking out of it are her horns, smooth, shiny, and black with bands of a similar color to her eyes occasionally striating them. There is one small quirk to her appearance, though, something that to her knowledge is unique to her. She can change her appearance in a number of ways; but her pupils have always been, and will always be, white.

While Section 6 has a uniform to keep, when she doesn't wear it she has a pretty strong predilection for wearing a sharp suit (with trousers or a pencil skirt, depending on her mood), complete with a jacket and tie. And these days, this is the most common use for her succubus magic. She won't use her seduction if she doesn't have to. She rather likes how she looks nowadays and doesn't end up changing it much. But whether you're talking about a uniform or a bespoke suit, there's nothing quite like freshly pressed clothing, and she can make it all look just right, and fall on her just so.

As you might be able to tell from her preferred clothing, Desdemona can be rather stiff sometimes. She went into cybersecurity instead of other fields for a reason; to her eternal shame, she's a succubus that's awful at talking to people. Overly blunt and poor at conveying emotions (especially affection), she could rightfully be called a stick in the mud. That's not to say that she doesn't know how to have fun; but what she finds fun can be rather different to others' ideas of it, and she's not great at showing she's having fun regardless. She tends to coop herself up a bit ("I'm doing the beep boop things, leave me alone."), and needs to be reminded that socializing is a thing that she does actually need to do on occasion. This does go along with one of her cardinal personality traits; the thing that was the difference-maker in getting her scouted from Section 6 to 7: she has what seems an almost impossible ability to keep calm under pressure.

That said, though, though it can look it if you don't know her well, but she's not without humor. Rather, she has a certain streak of wry deadpan. She may make fun of you; she'll definitely make fun of at least someone. But she doesn't mean to be malicious with any of it. It's just...how she shows she cares.

Her final wrinkle is that she's not really great with physical contact. That's not to say that she hates it or anything. Almost the opposite to some extent? It becomes rather complicated for her; as a succubus, a certain amount of her being is hardwired into wanting touch, but whenever she makes contact with someone, she doesn't really know what to do with the rest of it ("What do I do with my hands?") so it's just...very awkward, and she avoids it if she can help it.

As you can probably tell, she's very invested in her job. Being a Section 6 desk jockey meant she was able to avoid a lot of social weirdness; while she of course had to speak to her colleagues, perform audits, and so on and so forth, her specialization into cybersecurity meant that she was able to spend a great deal of time alone, which she always appreciated. That space she had to herself, along with her powerful work ethic, made her take her job extremely seriously. And though the dynamic in Section 7 is clearly, um, very different, she's determined to still do her (new) job, and do it well. She likes her job, really.

Background: Desdemona Smirnova's life has been...complex.

Born in New Helle, she never touched the other side. Never really wanted to, and her parents talked fairly frequently about how unpleasant the environment was in Hell proper, and that it was no place for a child. But she liked her city, she liked Earth. She was never very apt at socializing, even then; so she stayed home most of the time, and started getting very into computers. Her mom was very worried about her; she didn't really have any friends, or anything else social. She was just...not really acting like a succubus?

But, as it turned out, New Helle had its share of undersides as well, those far too close to home.

When Dezzie was still young, no more than thirty, she saw on the news--and subsequently received a horrified phone call from her mother--that her father had been arrested for several crimes. He'd been arrested, the news said, because someone from the BPS--Verity Redfield, a veteran agent of Section 6, they had an interview of her on--had been suspicious of some of his dealings and decided to look into them. Money that seemed to come from nowhere. A bank account teeming with more deposits than his (admittedly lucrative) occupation would provide. A bizarre lack of information where it had all come from. And the rest was history. He was tried and convicted for demon trafficking, kidnapping, prostitution, and so on and so forth. The whole thing was rather disturbing for her, imagining her father being...someone like that. And, of course, she began idolizing Agent Redfield.

She'd always had a way with computers, an affinity for technology. Now that it was kindled, she found that her talent blossomed into real skill. A year or so later--learning more, studying technology, picking stuff up, saving up just in case, getting her life together so she'd be able to take care of herself regardless of what happened--she quit her shitty retail job and applied for work at BPS Section 6. And was subsequently rejected. Two more years went by. More studying; she really dug herself into education, figured out exactly how to do what she needed to do. And this time when she applied, she was welcomed as the newest member of the cybersecurity segment of Section 6.

...Only to find that Verity Redfield had retired the year before. Unfortunate. Well, that idolism had slackened off over the years anyway. She was a real officer now, even if she occasionally caught some (hopefully joking?) ribbing about why a succubus, especially the daughter of the infamous Othello Smirnov, was a cop. She ignored it as best she could. She ignored most of them and what they said, honestly. This was when, no longer required to interact with people and coworkers, she started to really manifest her hermit behavior, shutting herself up with her computer and doing what she needed to do until it was time to clock out.

And then her mother died. Suicide. Grief-stricken, her isolating tendencies increased ever more.

It's been more or less fifteen years since then, and she's established herself as a dab hand at investigation and cracking through security systems. Her work has let to the capture of many a white-collar criminal, including a few similar to her father. It wouldn't be fair to say that she's the engine that keeps cybersec running, there are many people who work there and she's just one of them. But it would be fair to say that she's the employee of the month, every month.

Of course, that all changed very, very recently. She was sent to do an audit on-site. Big ol' company; check their financials, look over the employee records, have a chat with HR, et cetera. It was too early in the morning; she was tired, so she stepped out briefly to grab a coffee. No more than fifteen minutes.

When she came back, everyone was dead.

Now she's being yardsticked by the ever-mysterious Section 7, and if she can, she'll probably bite. In Section 6, she's just a cog in the machine. But in 7? Here, her skills can really mean something. She can be...more.

Ability:While she's quite a bit stronger and faster than a human would be in a similar situation and occupation, her physical capabilities aren't what set her apart. Rather, she is a master of cyberspace. She can crack a firewall with her eyes closed, run a deep background trace in her sleep, patch up a hole in the BPS system even blackout drunk. She can type faster than she can talk, fingers shrieking over her keyboard at an unbelievable 150 words per minute; if you saw a video, you'd think it's fake.

On the magical side, as mentioned briefly, Dezzie can alter her appearance to some extent. She can't turn into an entirely different person, but she can add or subtract six inches, she can change around her hair and eyes, reshape her face, and so on and so forth. This complements to her broader magic: seduction, the ability to shape and increase others' lust. Which...she really isn't a fan of, actually. It feels incredibly invasive, not to mention illegal; and she's is a cop, after all.

Artifacts: None at the moment, didn't really see the point in Section 6.

Connections:
-Othello Smirnov
--Dezzie's father, Othello ran a vast ring of demon trafficking, kidnapping, prostitution, murder, fraud...the list goes on. He was given a life sentence in the New Helle Penitentiary. Dezzie bears a great degree of contempt for him, and especially what his arrest and conviction did to her mother; but she does visit every few blue moons.

Misc: As mentioned, currently an employee at Section 6. She's in the recruitment process for Section 7 at the moment, so she won't actually know any of the agents there.

Umbra Rose Condos

Full transparency, I debated putting 9001% instead but it just felt strange to type it because of how neat three zeroes feels.