Mystic — Roleplayer Guild

Zinnia, mixed.
Meaning: Memory of an absent friend

"A zinnia blooms where I once smiled."

Chaos.

Santa Somabra looked like an aftermath of a war. Considering the circumstances, perhaps that impression wasn't so far off. There was a haunted air lurking in the area. People were shut in their homes, hiding their children. The wreckage was strewn around everywhere, and Anthea's nose wrinkled as she took in the heavy stench of blood residing in the air.  Even though she was no stranger to bloodshed, Anthea had never experienced disaster to this degree.

Gingerly stepping over a large chunk of what appeared to be a piece of roof, Anthea trudged onwards.  Death was everywhere. Wails of loss rang through the city as people despaired the loss of their loved ones. Anthea knew their pain. She pushed down the urge to empathize and kept investigating, but a few minutes later stopped dead in her tracks.

A broken body of a little girl, no older than 7 or 8 had been thrown into the street. Her youthful face was marred and bruised until it was unrecognizable, and her limbs were bent at odd angles.  The girl's clothes were matted with blood and dirt, but it was obvious that she had gone through some hard times. Her clothing was rugged and patched many times.

Anthea felt a sharp pang in chest. How could anyone do something so horrible to someone so young and innocent? Although she herself was far from pure, Anthea never involved innocent people, and required all of her subordinates to do the same.

Was it a little contradictory for a criminal to have a sense of justice? To some, probably not. Perhaps it was a little hypocritical of Anthea to consider herself above an average person of her profession. But there was a special reason why she was so enraged over this child's death.

Anthea had been pregnant many years ago. It had been her dream to be a mother. But shortly after her husband's death, her baby passed away before birth. There was some lingering maternal instinct left within the elven girl, and upon seeing this brutal murder, something snapped.

It was time to go on the offensive.

Anthea took out the white chysanthem from her hair and placed it next to the girl.

The glory days. Back when her father was still alive, the Martovanni family was like a well oiled machine. Everyone had their part to play, and everything ran very smoothly. While things weren't necessarily falling apart under Razghul, Anthea felt like it was still somewhat perilous compared to the older days.

No use reminiscing now, Anthea supposed.

She sat in the large Martovanni library, sifting through old records. All the past information on the mob was stored in a certain section of the massive library.  She paged through various files for about ten minutes before coming upon the one she was looking for.

Andy Fontaine diMaggio.  A former powerhouse in the Martovanni family. He and his friend Kiddo were some of the most reliable enforcers in the faction of all time.  They retired a while ago, but if Anthea recalled correctly, good friends with her father. In fact, her father had told her to count on Andy if she ever needed someone when she was young and vulnerable. Not only was Andy a good person to have on her side, he had earned her father's trust--a very rare occurrence.

After scribbling a quick message, Anthea braced herself before getting up to go knock on Razghul's door.  Without waiting for an answer, Anthea entered. Two ugly heads swiveled to glare at her.

"What do you want." One of the heads grunted with an unamused look on his face.

"The riots from earlier. What's the situation on it?" Anthea inquired, not intimidated by the hulking beast.

"None of your business, girly." The same head sneered dismissively. 
"Not under control in the slightest." Anthea stated bluntly, answering her own question. Directing her gaze to the more rational head, she continued. "I don't like you, and you don't like me. But you're going to need my help if we want to take back the city."

"And why should I accept your help?" The other head asked in a steely tone.

"Easy. I'm good at what I do." Anthea retorted matter-of-factly. "You know my reputation, I don't make mistakes. And you may have taken over the Martovanni family... but I'm still in high regard. I have contacts, I have people loyal to me. And most of all, we have a common enemy.  if we work together, the faster we can sort through this mess."

One of Razghul's heads snorted, but the other one stayed silent, sizing her up. "And what can you contribute?"

"I can start by getting us a very powerful ally." Anthea placed Andy's file on Razghul's desk. "Andy diMaggio."

Sparing only a dubious glance at it, Razghul scoffed. "And who's this? Your boyfriend?"

"You'd be an idiot to not know who he is Razghul." Anthea chided, opening up the file and shoving it into his face. "Everyone knows him. He's definitely someone you want to have on your side. Retired a while ago, but I think I can convince him to come back."

The two heads took a closer look at the file, and got a thoughful look (probably) on their faces. "Hmmm...  Now that you've mentioned it, I've never met him, but I've heard a lot of rumors about the guy. Still, I don't really see why I should. We've got enough capable people."

"Let me rephrase Razghul." Anthea countered in a clipped tone, "Having this guy on our side or not? This is what's going to make or break us."

"But..."

"Make. Or. Break. Us."

Many variations of this exchange continued for a while. Anthea insisting that they needed Andy, with Razghul protesting. Eventually, it appeared that Razghul got fed up.

"Fine! Just shut up!" One of the heads yelled. The other sighed and said, "If you just shut up... I'll let him in."

"Good." Anthea placed a letter on his desk. "Take this to Paul. You were planning to go over anyway, weren't you? He'll know who to give it to."

With that, she turned around and left before giving him a chance to protest.

Anthea was confident that Razghul would deliver, and that Andy would arrive. She had made all of the necessary preparations. Everyone that would be around when Andy arrived were all people that were loyal to Anthea. She had made sure that anyone loyal to Razghul were far away.

Of course, Andy would be a great help to the Martovanni family, but Anthea had other reasons to recruit him as well.

Eventually, Andy arrived, looking rather uncertainly the food that the butlers had prepared. As he nibbled, Anthea considered her words carefully.

 "Anthea. Nice to see you again, gal. Now, what's this about calling in a favour?" Andy finally spoke up.

"It's been a while Andy." Anthea murmured with a small smile before adopting a more business-like expression. "Andy... Would you ever consider coming back to the Martovanni family?"

Without waiting for an answer, she continued on. "I'm sure that you've witnessed the horrific riot that happened. I think we really need your help to help quell the instigators. The Martovannis are really lacking someone who knows what they're doing."

Anthea then paused, glancing around quickly to make sure that there weren't any enemies around. Leaning forward, she spoke in a more hushed tone. "And I also need your help to take back the Martovanni family. I know you don't like Razghul, and obviously I don't either. I can't stand seeing everything my father worked for crumble under that tyrant. What do you say?"
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