Arsenic and Old Lace

Who: Ari and Max
Where: Max’s house
When: Evening

He hadn’t felt like cooking so Max had ordered take out and he was spooning portions out onto plates. The radio was playing softly, winding music through the first floor and Max bobbed his head to the music. The family was following his advice. Thankfully. Things had been quiet that day and Max was enjoying the quiet. Surprisingly.

“Dinner, Ari!” He called above the music, bringing the plates of food to the dining room table, where there was a rather decent sized box in front of Arienne’s place setting.

Ari had been upstairs, finishing her homework. While it was a ridiculous little thing that she had to do--she'd learned all of this anyhow--she had to keep up appearances, and therefore she had been going through those motions. However when dinner was called, she gratefully dropped her pencil and headed down the stairs to go into the dining room. She smiled when she got there, her eyes immediately seeing the package. "And what is this?" she asked, turning that smile on her brother. The only person in her life who liked to lavish gifts was him. Sure, there were gifts from her parents over the years, but it was always Max who did the spur of the moment ones.

“Just because you’re my favorite,” he said with a little smirk and sat at the head of the table and poured her a small glass of wine. It was that and an apology but he’d hoped that she’d get that implication. “How was your day?”

"And you, mine." she told him, and as she passed, she paused to kiss his cheek. Then she sat at her seat, waiting for him to be finished pouring the wine before she took a sip. "Mainly uneventful." she told him. "However, I have been thinking a few things over." she added. "Now, shall I get into that first, or would you like me to open my gift first?"

Max pursed his lips in thought as he considered it and poured himself a glass of wine in turn. “Well, it’s an early birthday present I guess you could say. I was much too impatient to wait so I thought it might come in useful before then. The choice is yours. And thinking things over?” He shuddered theatrically. “That’s never good.” He winked at her over his glass.

She laughed at that. "Only for others." she told him, and she looked back to her gift. Then, decision made, she reached out and took it, opening it up. "I'll just be wondering the entire time if I don't look now..." she explained, wondering what it could possibly be. What she found was a wooden box, a beautiful one at that. It was gorgeously made, finely crafted. There was a design on the cover, with instruments and music, flowers. Her eyes lit up, a smile, soft and natural on her lips. Setting the packaging aside, she set the box on the table, opening it up.

Mozart’s Piano Sonata number two was what played, and it delighted her. Looking over at her brother, she allowed her genuine appreciation to show through. “I love it.” she told him, clearly pleased.

He watched her open the gift with a fond look on his face, just as pleased as she was at her enjoyment of the gift. "There's more to it," he told her and rose from his chair and came over. "You have to be very careful." Reaching over her, he very carefully lifted the tray out. There was no little ribbon or obvious indication that it could do that. "This is rather unique in it's creation. There's none other like it. That ring I gave you? Goes with this."

Revealed in the hidden compartment was a neatly packed row of darkly colored glass bottles, each labeled with neat script. Max picked out the first one, the liquid inside making the blue glass darker. "This killed Emperor Augustus. Deadly Nightshade. And this?" He picked up another bottle. "Wild Arum. It's an allergen if it touches your skin. If you ingest it?" His smirk was telling. "There's arsenic in here too, as well as some others." He handed her the two bottles. He was not necessarily a poison connoisseur but he knew his basics and knew who he needed to ask to get these.

Arienne gasped softly, looking at the bottles, and she took the ones he handed to her. She turned them over in her hands, liking the way the light caught them. "You got me poisons to go with my poison ring?" she asked, though it wasn't a question. She turned towards him more and put her arms around his neck, to give him a big hug. Sure, it hurt her arm, but she didn't make any show of it. It was a warm, affectionate hug. "This is one of the bests gifts I've ever gotten!" she told him, meaning that. She had the knife he'd given her, but that was for an emergency. That was messy. But poison? It was so much more elegant. So much more poetic, and she could do it with discretion! If she'd loved the box itself, she adored the hidden contents all the more. "Thank you so much." Her voice was the rich tones of a sweet girl if she'd been given a puppy. As if it was the most thoughtful, sweet gift ever. And to her...

"Well the ring would be rather useless without the occasions to use it, wouldn't you agree?" he grinned and hugged her back, pressing a kiss to the crown of her head. He couldn't help but think of what Lucas would have to say if he knew how he doted on his sister. Safe in his care indeed. Max had half a mind to use one of those concoctions on his cousin but had resisted.

"Lucrezia Borgia had a poison ring, you know," he told her before pulling away to take a sip of his wine. "She presided over the Vatican for her father sometimes too. Killed her enemies. A very intelligent woman whose children later went on to rule Europe. Her family died or was killed around her and she was the last one left. Showed them all." He leaned down to give her another affectionate kiss on the head. "I don't care who you put your trust into, no matter what kind of connections you may have with them. Don't tell anyone about this. This is for your safety and use. The greatest weapon you have is the one that is only at your disposal." Sure he knew about it -- he'd given it to her after all -- but he had no need for it. "You'll need something for when I'm not there to take care of it for you."

"Agreed. Our secret." she said, looking through the other bottles, memorizing what was on the little labels so she could look them all up later. Oh, it was actually honestly exciting, this particular gift. And it was difficult to get Ari excited. "And hopefully you'll always be there to care for me, but I understand." she promised. "I couldn't have dreamed of anything better, thank you." she said, stressing that gratitude as she looked at him again, almost bouncing in her seat she was so pleased. This, from one of the world's most reserved girls.

Max chuckled and shook his head. "If I had known you'd get this excited about poisons, I'd have gotten you a chemistry set," he teased her. "Then you could make your own inventions." Which hey, she might like, but it might have been a little too obvious. "Now that you have your excitement, eat. The food is going to get cold." He sat down and dug into his own food as he watched her fawn over the bottles. "Cousin Lucas seems to think I can't take care of you. I think he thinks a bad influence." His smile was completely innocent. If only he could see.

She reluctantly set the poisons back into the box, closing it up with an affectionate brush of her hand over the top of it, before she turned to her food. "He did seem to express such things when I spoke to him." she said. "Actually, he's who I've been thinking about." she continued. "When I got to him, I believe you had rubbed some salt in hidden wounds. And I came in behind you and built him up, only in different ways. It was interesting. I couldn't have orchestrated it better if I'd tried, really. I think we could work him as an asset. But we'll need to keep him feeling just unappreciated enough, so I can begin bending him to my will."

"Lucas is a whiny child who hates the fact of my existence," Max explained. He understood what she was saying and he had no problem diving right into providing her with information. "He's older than I am, yes, but since his father wasn't head of the organization, there was no grooming. By the time I came along, Lucas was old enough to see the injustice on his end. I suspect there had been talk about grooming him since it took such a long time for father to have children but he was young enough that it really didn't affect him. By the time everyone figured out how I was, it was too late for him to step in and be the savior. Even though I'm not acknowledged, I still get to sit in on the meetings. He's reduced to errand boy, for all intents and purposes." A smirk spread over his features and he speared a piece of chicken with relish. "I drive him absolutely mad and it's wonderful." He eyed Arienne over the place settings. "And he thinks, as everyone does, that you're defenseless and lily white."

"A role I am happy to play." Arienne said, humming as she thought. "He was fairly vocal about his distrust of you, how he feels was written on his features. I think he fears for my safety, told me to take care, and to tread lightly in order not to 'spark' your mood in a negative way." she took another sip of wine. "But I feel he's got no confidence in your ability to look after me or anything else. There's quite the maladjustment going on between you, isn't there?" she asked rhetorically. "Here's what I see. He's useful. He could be even more useful if pointed in the right directions, and he's under appreciated at best by father and everyone else. That we can use. All we need to do is cultivate the idea that I alone do see his value, and care about him, and sympathize with his plight. Which I've already started. And, I've told him that I'll check in with him more often so he can be assured I'm still safe and sound whilst under your care."

Max muttered something unkind in regards to her 'checking in' and pretended that the broccoli he was stabbing with his fork was Lucas' smarmy, flat face. "He's our 'media relations liason'," Max said around his broccoli and sipped some wine. The sparking of his mood hit close to home given the other night, but Lucas probably expected Max to kill his sister, not give her a damn good shake. "He cleans up my media messes, adjusts certain things in favor of the family. Given his work at the paper, him doing that is expected of him. That's why he was allowed to work there. It's not our fault he's unsatisfied with 'meeting expectations'. He sulks like he's eight, not thirty-eight." Which, Max figured, was what made him pliable to Arienne.

Arienne smiled at her brother's antics, pausing as she finished her bite before continuing. "Oh don't worry, brother. I'm agreeing to check in so I can keep slowly reinventing his world view." she promised. "It was just convenient that he distrusts you and the like, it'll mean whenever I need him to be knocked back down a peg or two, you can easily go in and do so, so I can build him back again." she explained. "As for his title, I think you're at least a little guilty of being unappreciative. His role or not, he does have followers in this city--those who read his words and take it as word from on high. That's criminally underused for us, you know. We should be making much more use of the man and his position and talents, but we don't need to get into the utter complacency our father seems to have dropped into. He should be doing more than putting things you do in prettier terms. He should be swaying public opinion, something you and I are unable to do on our own." She smiled. "I know you don't like him, but he could very definitely help us get what we want."

"Oh, I can knock him down a few pegs alright," Max said. It continually surprised him how easy it was for him to throw Lucas off his pedestal and how much fun it could be. "So we make him your herald then? Is that what you're getting at?" That was a different way to look at it. Lucas' Echo alias was certainly a revered one. The articles were always front page news. "So what? He starts finding scapegoats and paint us as the white knights? Or is this another 'eventually when I'm ready to start moving' plan? Also, if he fails at whatever it is, I call dibs on his head."

Pausing as she considered his wording, she eventually nodded. "Yes." she agreed. "Well put. Herald. As for what, I'll be considering that. I think his merely finding scapegoats and the like is thinking too small. It's what father would be doing. I want him doing more than that. Sensationalizing what we need to be blown up for everyone. Breaking stories we hand him, swaying whatever needs swaying. Painting us in different lights is only one small thing he can manage. There's a lot more to be tapped into, I'm rather disappointed no one has even thought of it til now." she said, shaking her head. But then they'd discussed their father and the lack of quality rule there. "As for his head, we need him to keep it. However if things go incredibly poorly, just don't keep it in the house." she instructed. "But let's leave that as a very last resort, shall we? Building up someone else with his unique manipulation points would take far too long for my liking. But him...well. He's quite easily manipulated. Playing him while I was there was quite easy." She smiled sweetly.

"He's easy alright," Max agreed. Lucas' job had possibilities that Arienne could see and that's what mattered. "Maybe at one point it was thought of," he ventured thoughtfully. "But as you've said, we've become too complacent." He fell quiet as he ate, rolling around what Arienne had said. It would take awhile to move the pieces into place, she was right. "What about this Ella Cinder? Think she's anything to be concerned about?" The sensational stories hadn't so much affected the family so much as general dishonesty in the city's population. Where the sources were coming from though... that might need to be looked into.

"Not unless she starts putting up articles about anyone we're associated with. If she does, then she's likely better off silenced, but for now, all she's really doing is uncovering some unconnected criminals. It's a nice diversion for the people of the city to concentrate on, instead of the bloodshed that's been occurring and will continue to occur." Arienne said, thinking for now it was fine. But if the girl started doing anything less harmless...people disappeared sometimes. She’d leave the details to Max.

And making people disappear was something Max was very good at. "And I'm sure if there are any concerns, our dear cousin will be more than happy to divulge them," he winked. "Anything you need me to do about him in particular? I think he might run in the other direction if he saw me any time soon." That was always the trouble with poking at his cousin. He wasn't able to do it enough.

Arienne thought about it. "You prod his issues well." she said. "Reminding him that he isn't treated well by not treating him well, rubbing in that you go to meetings and he does not. Doing that now and then is good. Don't over play it, but just enough to needle him." She took another bite before she finished her thoughts. "What I did plant is the idea that I have confidence in you. That you're protective of me, even if he doesn't think I'm safe here. You could cultivate that slightly more. The idea that you're protective and are caring for me. That'll eventually be a larger point to twist him around on. To get him more towards me and trusting in you, even if he hasn't before. He seems fond of me, and genuinely concerned. If he has the idea that you may share that, it will be helpful later, as well as give you a positive point of commonality. I think your best bet on that is to express your concern for my safety, since it's real anyhow. Let him view it. Beyond that, let drop into conversation little details that speak of you paying attention to what's going on in my life. Let him know there's that personal connection and you're not only letting me stay here but you're engaged in even the smaller things. Not even father knew most of what I did with my time. If you knew, and proved that, it would be something Lucas could use to view you in a different light."

"So what you're saying is annoy him by being a responsible and caring big brother." When it was put that way, Max was more inclined to show his nature towards someone that wasn't his sister. No one saw the depth of his caring for his sister. Their parents viewed it as his way to annoy and bother them, nothing stemmed from genuine feeling or at least as close to genuine feeling that he could get. "I can do that."

"What I'm saying is get him to second guess his opinion of you." Arienne said. "He has a very solid, very specific idea of who you are. Rattle it. And because it has to do with me, who he seems to genuinely like, it'll have more impact. It'll be interesting to see how he reconciles that in his own mind." she said, smiling. "And how long it takes him to actually admit he might have been slightly harsh when it came to you..." She didn't expect him to go telling the complete truth or anything to their cousin, but just give enough to make Lucas pause.

"Rattling I can do." He'd be more than happy to do it. Whatever turned Lucas' worldview upside down was good. "They've agreed to wait on their retaliation by the way. It seems I came off quite convincing." He didn't look at her when he said it. That conversation still left a bad taste in his mouth and he didn't want to dwell on everything she'd told him.

"Excellent." Ari said, nodding approval. "I had every confidence in you. Thank you." she added, because it was true. She also hoped that it did something for him, that he felt more confident in his abilities to persuade those around him, to do things in another manner than he was generally used to. "How did it feel?" she asked curiously. "To get your way like that on something so important?"

Max was quiet, not answering immediately. He remembered his conversation with Eris earlier that day, the way she'd called him a junkyard dog sent to maul sticks and he knew that was how he was ultimately viewed by the family. Deep down, he wasn't someone with responsibility and power. "They were surprised, I think," he said slowly. "By how seriously I take the intelligence gathering." That hadn't been Arienne's suggestion. He'd brought it in. Arienne had just wanted them to wait and he'd spun it to make himself look like he was the only one who could do so. "How I wanted to plan the strike so it wouldn't be such a mess like theirs was." And that had been his fault. If he had been there, or if his men had been more capable. "It was good. They didn't skirt around me like the tend to do." Like they could smell the blood on him.

A bright smile lit her face. "Very nice." she complimented. "I'm impressed. That's exactly what I mean when I say there's far more to you than people have decided so far. That's a perfect play, there. It not only gets the time delay we need, but sets you up to look better on a number of levels. Very well done."

He bowed his head in thanks. “I am multi-talented,” he said with a smirk. “So am I allowed to develop my retaliation plan yet?”

“I don’t have a specific target yet, but there should be one soon. What did you have in mind, either way?” she asked. Because she didn’t mind if Max wanted to input on things. All she needed to do was ensure that certain people stayed alive, to help Nate’s rise to power, and it had to happen on their timetable, not anyone else’s.

"Given how easily they came in, they had inside information. Someone's been bought off and they're stupid enough to take it. Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to do what they did. I'm suspecting it's one of the household staff, which I don't control. Things have been in a bit of an upheaval since mother died. I imagine someone managed to slip through the cracks. I'll find them. They'll sing a song. The troubling part is whether or not this was an assassination attempt. I don't think it was but sometimes they're not so clear. Once I have that answer, I can move forward accordingly." If it was an assassination attempt, then Max would find out who ordered it and take them out. If it wasn't, then he had the opportunity to get creative.

“Possibly. They’re also headstrong. But go. Find your informant. It’ll keep people busy while I come up with the next shot taken in their direction.” She paused as she realized that Max hadn’t been paying attention when she’d told him what was going on. “It wasn’t an assassination attempt. Or, if it was, it was always going to fail.” she told him. “It was ensured to fail. Father was detained for a reason. He was never meant to be at home when the strike hit.”

"Whether father was there or not, if it was an attempt, it changes who ends up paying the price," Max explained. "If it was just a raid, an intimidation, which I suspect it was given the mess that was left since assassinations tend to be cleaner, then who pays the price for it is more flexible. Given the free-for-all manner in which the house was left, I suspect that perhaps the same group of people who did the job have done others that have been reported." He'd been keeping his ears open on the accompanying violence that didn't fit with the other strings of attacks and murders, such as the odd attack on the Hagel gallery. Which usually wouldn't have warranted such close scrutiny but given the familial relationship, Max had peeked his head in personally.

“Explain what you mean by there being a sliding scale on who pays.” Ari requested, thinking she needed to understand exactly what he meant there in order to navigate this conversation.

"If it was an ordered hit, then I hit the wife and children of the one who gave the orders who then would go on to take care of the ones who were meant to carry it out. If it was just a raid, then I have my pick of those on the mission. Start picking them off, they don't know whose next. Which, to be honest, is one of my more favorite past times because it's prolonged. I can decide how fast I want to go through them." He paused, frowning a little. "If they don't have loved ones, then I eliminate someone else's family. Causes quite a bit of chaos actually."

She nodded. “You’re still thinking like they’re the enemy to take out.” she told him. “What you’re going to need to do is take out the people we need to take out. For instance, my insider was there, but it wouldn’t do for you to kill him.” she explained. “We need to do this strategically, not in the way you usually do things. As for killing whole families...that’s messy. I understand the merit to it--nothing quite leaves a lasting impression like utter leveling of a family, but our goal can’t be to wipe them out anymore. Do you understand?” she asked, because she wasn’t sure if she’d explained thoroughly enough.

Max nodded, albeit a little reluctantly. He still didn't see why they couldn't be torn down and then rebuilt to their specifications but then, Arienne didn't have a decade's worth of habit to break like he did. "So how am I supposed to stop them from asking questions?" Max asked. "That's the way I've done things, it's what they'll be expecting. Or is this just another part of my 're-imaging'?" He didn't mean to sound annoyed but he was. Max didn't like it when things changed quickly. It meant he had to re-adapt, re-evaluate and the changes Arienne was asking were bigger than just factoring in everyday nuances. It was like he had to rewire his whole brain and it was frustrating.

“Part of your re-imaging.” Ari confirmed. “But it’s also going to be re-imaging for us as a whole. We want these people in the end. And I want people who will willingly come over, not just people who are afraid and therefore sign up because it’s the only option. If we did that, we’d have only people who could be trusted while supervised, and that’s not the organization I want.” she explained. “As for stopping them from asking questions, you still can do the first step you were talking about. Find the rat. Find the insider in the house. That person’s expendable. They would be considered as such by the other side as well, otherwise they wouldn’t have sent them into the belly of the beast, so to speak. So do whatever you want there. Be you. It’s the ripples outwards after that that we need to alter, and don’t even worry about that--by the time you find the rat and deal with that, I’ll have a new target for you.” she promised.

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye as he stood with his empty plate. The things he did for the love of his sister... "If this ends up backfiring, we're moving to California," he said, picking up his wineglass and heading into the kitchen. "It's full of crazies. We'll blend right in. None would be the wiser." It was the threat that hung over their heads. For as smart as she was, for as good as he was, there was always that chance that they'd be found out. No matter how minuscule it seemed to be. Paranoid, he peeked out the curtains of the little kitchen window, as if he'd see someone with a listening device hanging outside.

She smiled at him, even if her thoughts were grim. If this backfires, I’ll be dead. You might make it out, but I wouldn’t. She knew the stakes. She understood just how serious it all was. It was a game to her, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t life or death. “We can go anywhere you’d like.” she promised, even if she knew it wouldn’t end that way, even at the best of times. She followed, watching him looking out the windows. “We’re trusted, brother.” she told him lightly. “No one’s going to see this coming, because it’s unthinkable.”

"I've put down people who think that they can take on the throne, Arienne," he told her, still peering into the twilight. "People who thought that they were in the right place, the right position. There've been people in the past. Husbands, wives, upstart children squabbling for power. Not just in the family but in all histories.” Those lessons were still vivid in his mind. "I imagine Lucas would've tried something, had things stayed the way they were." He sometimes thought of what their life would be like if he was still that bright son. Max finally looked at her, a fond smile on his face. "I would never think that my baby sister would want to take my job over, that's for sure."

"Those other people lacked what we have." Ari said. "First of all, we have us. You and I, we're solid. I'm never going to betray you. And you're never going to betray me. I can't and have no desire to do any of this without you. We've got the talents to get it done. I know how to look at all of this and play it better than chess. And you know how to take out the pieces in the way. That...and the final key--my insider." Even if she rather disliked calling him that. She didn't think it did justice to who he was to her, what he meant. But she was putting it that way because she imagined Max would take issue with other phrasing. “When the opposition is helping you as well...”

He reached over and slung his arm around her slim shoulders and pulled her into a half hug. The smile on his face faded a little and he continued to look outside. Her insider. This person she had a connection with. He didn't like it, not one bit. "As long as he stays out of my way, I can ignore him," he told her honestly. Pretending he didn't exist as much as possible was what helped keep peace in Max's head. It went against all his instincts to trust family and only family but she was right. Having the insider was helpful in completing their goals. If only at the end of it Max could have his way with him... "It'll be fine. We'll be fine."

"He will." Ari promised. She was going to make sure of that. And thankfully, Max seemed uninclined to find out who he was or meet him or anything. So, for now, she was thinking that was for the best. Possibly a little surprising, but for the best. "And yes, we will be. This is going to work." It would take a long time, but it would pay off. She knew it would.