The message isn't always kind.

It took John nearly twenty minutes to try and get his mom to calm down after he informed her about the fact that the house had been burned down. Brenda, for the most part, didn't want to hear about the house. As soon as she heard that a tragedy had happened, she wanted to know that John was okay. She had to know that John hadn't been hurt or that someone hadn't been killed during the large gap of time that he had been away from her, and after he had finally reassured her of the fact that everyone was okay, he finally managed to explain to her that the house was gone.

Robyn stepped in at that point. Her face was still flushed and slick with sweat after the conversation that they had had with Daniel, but she seemed thoroughly determined to try and help John out more now than she had been before. She brushed a few stray golden locks out of the way of her amber-hued eyes as cop after cop silently passed them by, and then with a slight sigh, she interrupted their conversation before his mother could worry any further.

"It'll take a little bit of work to try and make everyone fit, but the two of you are welcome to stay with me until you can find a new place to lay your heads at night," she told them once she had leaned in close enough for his mother to hear her speaking over the phone. Brenda immediately followed up the statement with another question, asking him for the identity of the new, strange, feminine voice that she heard over the phone line with him... and then she asked him if Robyn was his new girlfriend. Robyn immediately blushed upon hearing Brenda call her that.

"No, ma'am. I uh... I tend to bat for the other team." Even as Robyn was trying to explain the fact that she wasn't into men to John's mom, John couldn't help but notice that the blonde had to lean in close to John to try and speak into the phone. His mother quickly caught on to what Robyn was saying and John could almost hear his mother's frown as they continued speaking... but his attention quickly left the phone. If Robyn preferred women over men sexually, then it left him wondering whether or not his aura actually worked on her despite her personal interests. She certainly stood close enough to John to trigger the aura within its small range, but he didn't want to get caught leering at her. Eventually, he decided to 'discreetly' lean back while Robyn stood over his phone, talking into it, and with a quick glance checked to see if the warrior might still be affected by him.

After a couple of moments, he managed to identify two small hardening nubs through the front of her bra and even noticed how she breathed a little deeper while in his presence. While he was checking her out though, Robyn quickly took the phone from John's grasp. He didn't fight hard to keep holding on to it. At the most, John let out a little exclamation before Robyn walked off while talking to his mother, and he watched as the two of them got to work on trying to arrange the group’s new sleeping arrangements. Robyn must have been expecting him to follow her because, after a couple of moments, he watched as she climbed back into her car and started it up like she was ready to go. John couldn't think of any reason to actually stay behind now that he knew his mother was safe, so he began to follow her. He was stopped halfway across the street by the same elderly neighbor lady that had seen him dressed in his suit of armor before.

"Mr. Newman..." she called out to him and began power-walking in his direction. John stopped to turn and look at her, his brow furrowed and tight as his neighbor addressed him. It was almost startling to hear her call him Mr. Newman. He was used to hearing her call him by his first name, John, not by his last name. His father was Mr. Newman amongst the neighbors, John was just... John. "I couldn't help but overhear, but was that your mother that you were talking to? She is okay?" There was a slight pause as John looked at... god, he could never remember her name. It took him a couple of moments to nod to Mrs. Mortimer, but when she took another step towards him, he spared her one more glance before he tried to turn back to the Deuce. Out of everyone else on the street, Mrs. Mortimer was the only neighbor who had bothered to try and talk to John. Many of the other people there just walked past him like they didn't even notice that he existed... but she was intently focused on John. He opened his mouth to try and reassure her that there was nothing to worry about... and then froze when he saw her eyes dip down to the cursed ring that was still stuck on his finger.

Daemon gave off a dim glow as Mrs. Mortimer's eyes landed on the little piece of jewelry, and John immediately took a step back and away from his old neighbor. Her eyes followed John as he cautiously increased the distance between them, and they stared silently at one another. As far as John could tell, she should have had her own burned down house to worry about, right? Also, in the past, no one other than John or the goddess seemed able to notice the ring on his finger. Yet, his neighbor looked right at it. He frowned as she took another determined step towards John, but he followed it up again by moving away from her.

"John? Are you oka-" Her tone sounded genuine. Her body walked in the exact same manner that John was used to seeing her move in... and yet, a part of him felt like he was talking to someone else...

...like the person he was talking to wasn't actually there.

"Alanah..." John growled out her name and watched as the expression on Mrs. Mortimer's face dropped. His hands clenched up into fists and he stepped further away from the assassin, who normally used the alias 'Otrov', and then cast Observe to confirm his suspicions.

Alanah Walsh
Level 18 Rogue
<Otrov>
423/423 HP
RP: -153
Effects: Illusioned, Hidden.

As soon as Otrov heard John call her out by name, she took another step towards him, the illusion of John's elderly neighbor lurched towards him. Mrs. Mortimer moved at a speed towards John that he never would have suspected from her before that and **** him to jump backwards just to get out of her reach. He spun on a heel, halfway through shouting out towards Robyn when he saw it.

John saw himself, or at least another illusion of himself, standing next to Robyn's car as the blonde continued talking into the phone that she had taken away from him. She didn't even blink at the Gamer as John tried waving at her or calling out loud enough for even his mother to hear it over the phone. She just turned and smiled at the illusion that Otrov had made as it appeared in the car next to her... and then with a robotic turn of its head, John watched as his own face turned to stare back at him.

Again, Mrs. Mortimer lurched towards John. He had to jump away from her sporadically, each time in a random direction in case Otrov was no longer standing in her own illusion, but he knew that he couldn't keep it up for long. Eventually, the invisible rogue would catch up with him, and then... well, it was game over. A quick glance at his character sheet reminded John that he couldn't just escape to his kingdom anymore. The button that he would have pressed to travel there was bland and gray, untouchable and useless aside from the fact that it had the message 'IN COMBAT!' stamped heavily across the front of the button. If he wanted to get away, he had to either run and hide... or beat Otrov. To do that... he just had to find her-

The image of Mrs. Mortimer gently faded out of existence. It dissipated like a mirage wavering as it tried to get closer to him... and, for once, John got to actually meet Otrov in person, without any illusions to hide her. Initially, he was so surprised to see her actually show her real face to him that John almost stopped and stayed in one place for a moment just because he thought the fight might be over... then a single suspicious thought popped into his head and he cast Observe on Otrov as she finally stopped chasing him around.

Observe Failed. No target selected.

For a moment, Otro- No, Alanah's face shimmered again before his eyes as Observe's magic pierced through the thin veil of color that the rogue had summoned, and then John jumped backwards again. A sharp grunt nearly went unheard from somewhere off to his side before a glint of metal sliced through the air in front of his eyes. The very tip of a knife passed in and then out of vision as her invisibility faltered for a second, but it was enough to remind John that he should keep moving.

"Enough." Alanah growled after a couple more seconds had passed, and John watched as the rogue finally stepped back into her illusion, the direction of her voice finally matched the place where John could see her standing... but he knew her to be trickier than that. She had made an illusion of Michel, after all, one that could talk and walk. It wasn't until John could continually cast Observe on his enemy and found her character sheet consistently popping up in front of him that he felt confident enough to stop moving... just as Robyn finally drove away. A little chuckle escaped the Gamer as Otrov glared at him and then glanced at the leaving vehicle, but it was John's turn to talk to her.

"Out of mana, Alanah?" he taunted and watched as Otrov stiffened up again.

"How-" she paused momentarily, as if considering to try and create another illusion before she decided against it. John used Observe on her again just to make sure that she hadn't moved. She was... cuter than John had initially thought her to be. The picture he had seen of Otrov in the Frozen Flame's headquarters didn't do her any justice. "How do you know my name?" As she was talking, Otrov gingerly slid a hand in place over the small of her back and pocketed the dagger that she had been trying to cut John with. He didn't see where exactly the rogue had put the knife, since he couldn't see any holsters strapped to her body, but he assumed that they were probably hidden with some kind of illusion as well. There was no way to tell how many weapons she actually had on her, so he couldn't trust her to discard them all... or that she had ever even actually put one away.

That thought made him jump when Otrov lifted her hands up again. She didn't do anything other than run a hand back through her curly, jet-black locks of hair, but the motion made John uneasy nevertheless. If not for the fact that it helped to hide her, John didn't know why Otrov wouldn't have stayed in her regular form normally. She looked fairly harmless at first glance, dressed in a simple white blouse and tight black slacks. Her apple-sized breasts were framed and squeezed together by the set of dark suspenders that went up over her shoulders and, if not for the fact that he was more distracted with the way it made her cleavage pop, John might have considered that she probably had a few more knives strapped to those suspenders or around her slender waist. Her sapphire blue eyes glared at John as he continued to uselessly 'check her for weapons' in silence, but he never found anything.

Nothing other than a pair of black combat boots where he assumed she kept more knives.

"I have a spell that helps me to identify certain items. As luck would have it, that spell mentioned you by name, Ms. Walsh." On the edge of his vision, John watched as the black leather gloves on her hand were stretched taut as she balled her hands up into a pair of fists. Another use of Observe confirmed to him that she was still standing in place. "You may as well relax," he told her and raised his hands cautiously. If she wasn't trying to fight him anymore, then he may as well try to work with the temporary peace. The button on his character sheet for transporting to the kingdom wasn't usable yet, but with any luck it would be soon. "I've already given your name to the Frozen Flame and I have no doubt that they will be sharing it with the Order soon, if they haven't already." Again, Otrov tensed up.

"What do you want?" For a moment, Otrov glanced at something behind John, and he almost turned to look, until he remembered that it was probably a bad idea for him to take his eyes off her. Though, he couldn't exactly confirm that he ever actually had his eyes on her. For all he knew, Alanah could have just been another illusion too. A nearby fire truck beeped as it began to roll further down the street, still chasing after the fire, but neither of them paid any attention to it. By that point, the people were clearing out of the neighborhood. If it wasn't the police that was ushering them out, then most of them were just leaving to try and hopefully find a place for them and their families to stay for the night.

"Did you start this fire?" he asked, and almost immediately Otrov shook her head. He had no reason to believe her... but he went with her answer... for now. "Do you know the Cabalist who did?" This time, Otrov paused. Her black hair rustled slightly with a smoky breeze, and John used Observe again when he noticed even the slightest ounce of movement. Eventually, he realized that she wasn't going to answer but decided that her silence was telling enough. She was a Cabalist. She was there. She had to know who had attacked his family. He just didn't know how to get her to talk to him. A couple long moments of silence passed them by before Otrov spoke up again. Her question remained the same, but the rogue shifted uneasily with an air of impatience.

"What do you want?" she demanded, and John froze. Her identity and secret seemed important to her to help keep her from attacking him... or she just didn't have enough mana to kill him, yet. In the end, after what felt like an hour had passed them by and the rest of the street seemed empty, John decided to try his luck. What could it hurt, right? Best case scenario, it got Robyn off his back. Worst case, Otrov tried to kill him anyways.

"I want you to let Moira and Cassandra go."

It was a stupid request, preposterous even. He had been expecting the scoffing... the laughter... Hell, he had even expected her to just throw a knife at him and be done with the conversation. That way, it would have been one less person for her to worry about when it came to who knew her identity. Yet... after a couple more minutes had passed, Otrov stopped laughing. She huffed and puffed, breathing heavily like she was used to the smoke-riddled air... and then her stance... relaxed. She looked John up and down, her hands clenching and unclenching repeatedly... and then she answered him.

"You're serious." she muttered softly and watched as John nodded. A couple more seconds passed as Otrov turned her head to glance up the street... and then nodded back at John. "Alright... Okay, I'll do it..."

"I'll do it... but I want you to do something for me, too."