196 Interlude: Know Despair...

Montreal, Canada, February 28th, 18:00.

Cherie has not been having a good time recently.

It all started with Lusia's visit.

At first, things actually got better. She and her siblings got closer from that night Lusia was here, somehow managing to make them all socialise without hating each other for the first time... ever.

As a direct result of that, they grew closer. Talked more, attacked each other less.

Well, not everyone. Guillaume is still a prissy little bitch, and they are all still so annoying that Cherie still throws shit at them, but Aroa started actually making sure that we were okay before running away after tasing us, and Valentina finally figured out how to make a joke, even if she was terrible at it.

But then it all went wrong, because of course it did.

Her father decided that he wanted a certain woman in his bed, Sidney Saile, an actress in Vancouver.

Naturally, things didn't go well. 

The Heroes from both cities, plus some extras, all banded together to get the woman back, which Cherie finds hypocritical to be honest. Just because she's famous, she gets treated differently to all the other women her father's taken?

It also has left Cherie very dissapointed her father's short-sightedness, even more than she already was.

The resulting fighting cost them just about everything that they've built up. Their forces now basically non-existent, their funds mostly frozen and worse of all, they lost Valentina.

Right as the dumb bitch was finally starting to learn to be fun. Right as Cherie finally,  finally felt like she actually had a big sister, and now she's gone. Dead.

As if that wasn't bad enough, one of her little brothers, Jean-Paul, took advantage of the chaos to fucking  run away. The traitorous little shit actually just fucking  left without even a  word or warning.

That, combined with the Heroes getting the fucking actress back anyway, caused her father to be in a rather bad mood ever since. Cherie hasn't felt pain like what he's forced upon her and her siblings to such a frequent degree ever before. 

It feels like it's every day that she's forced to piss herself from sheer  terror being forced through her veins, and it's not something she has been enjoying.

Frankly, she was thinking about following after Jean-Paul's example, even if she blames him for life getting worse, but one thing has stayed her hand. She wants to kill her father first.

The only problem with that, is that he can  also sense emotions, and her siblings are hardly loyal to  her over their father anyway, so it's not like she can count on them.

So, how do you plan someone's murder, when said person would know the moment you set any plan into motion?

Her original plan was to get Jean-Paul in on it, because he's enough of a sociopath that their daddy dearest never would have noticed anything going on with him, but clearly that's not a fucking option anymore.

Honestly, Cherie was just thinking about giving up and running away anyway. She'll have to find someone to protect her from her father, but luckily she already has an idea in mind for a group she could join for safety.

The only question is how to go about reaching them. Should she just start wearing a big red nose or something, hoping that they show up?

If Cherie was the type to spend more time online, she might have thought to just use PHO to message them.

Fortunately however, the problem of getting in contact with a Clown ceases to be a problem, as Cherie picks up on a familiar 'song' approaching their latest home, a slightly less opulent villa this time.

As if to confirm her thoughts on who is approaching, Cherie feels Aroa's energetic song rapidly approaching her room, and she's already watching the door as the little girl bursts in without knocking.

"Daddy says to gather in the front room!" She exclaims before running off, not waiting for a response or closing the door behind her.

Cherie thinks her little sister is self doping, using her own power to make herself masochistic as a way to deal with all the pain daddy dearest forces on them all.

She can hardly blame the tyke, but she'd honestly prefer if she was just depressed, because at least that way she wouldn't be so damn energetic.

Being woken up by over-hyper siblings is not a fun thing. Though Cherie would be surprised to know that normally siblings don't usually wake each other up by tasing them or throwing bricks at them, or something else equally cruel.

Growing up in this family, restraint isn't something that is really taught.

Whatever the case may be, Cherie gets up and starts making her way to the front room, not having any slaves to bring this time, thanks again dad, while also using her power to keep track of everyone in and around the house, finding herself mostly focusing on Lusia's music.

It's just so loud and intense. It's impossible to ignore, and nothing else really compares to it.

Shaking distracting thoughts from her head as she pushes open the front room's door, Cherie keeps her expression and mind neutral as she walks to a seat and does her best to relax into it's cushions.

However, relaxation is hard when the music around her is so distracting. Even beyond the slowly approaching madness, the room itself is already filled with a suffocating undercurrent of fear and nervousness, born entirely form the source of wrath in the centre.

Daddy dearest is visibly angry, as he has been ever since Saile got taken back from him, and we all know who he blames. The same woman approaching the house.

The difference, is that this time, they all actually know who the fuck Lusia Abel is, so none of them have any of the confidence from the last time she visited when none of us really knew who she was.

The psycho is a fucking walking natural disaster. She's basically an Endbringer-lite, which is still far too much Endbringer for anyone sane to ever willingly pick a fight with.

Nikos says nothing even as the last of his powered kin enter the room. Funnily enough, the number is the same as last time, since Juliette, another of Cherie's younger sisters, triggered with Valentina's death at the ripe age of six.

Cherie is pretty sure that her father's going to get rather angry with Lusia, and she's fairly certain that his confidence, at least in part, to do so comes from Juliette's freshly awoken power, the ability to make one person freeze as long as she also stays completely still.

Cherie doesn't think it'll work. And even if it does, she doesn't think anything can come of it.

That woman's music is too insane to manipulated, and she's under no delusions that they'd manage to actually kill her, and, again, what would be the point? Doing so would likely just bring her allies down on us, not something we can face.

It's a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-do-but-in-a-different-way kind of deal. Unfortunately, 'doing' things is something of a specialty of her fathers.

She just hopes that she doesn't die today, and she'd also prefer it if Chastity, Samuel and Aroa survived too, not that she'd ever let the little shits hear that, but she doesn't want them to die at the very least.

As for the rest of her family?.. She really couldn't care less if she tried. Frankly speaking, she'd be willing to be the one pulling the trigger for the rest of her family, they could all burn in hell and she'd roast marshmallows on their skin.

Her own mother could attest to how little she cared for her family, if not for the fact that she couldn't, not after the little 'tuning' that Cherie did soon after triggering.

The bitch deserved it, as far as Cherie was concerned.

Of course, having to take over her mother's 'duties' for the men who paid her father for 'company' wasn't really worth the satisfaction of watching the bitch collapse into a foaming-at-the-mouth mess of a human being.

But whatever, you win some you lose some, right?

...Saying that to herself never makes it feel any better.

Distracting her from her dark thoughts is a soft knocking at the door. Thump-thump. And she looks over in time to catch the door swinging open, a single guard with only a handgun holding the door open for Lusia as she walks in, bold as brass.

She's not wearing a low budget porno's nun outfit this time, thankfully, and instead is donning a simple pink tank top and jean short shorts, with one of those jackets that are worn at the elbow, leaving her upper arms free to show off her new tattoos.

The main one to get her attention is the three feminine faces on her right bicep, one staring ahead neutrally, one staring to the left with a snarl and one staring to the right with a smile. It sparks some glint of recognition in Cherie's mind, like she should know what it represents, but nothing comes to mind.

On her other bicep, there is a tattoo showing a man in a suit sitting at a small, round table and being served a beer by a barmaid, with eight identical craters surrounding them, each one with a cross shaped to look almost like a sword piercing the earth embedded in it's centre.

Beyond those two additions, she also has a snowflake on the back of her right hand, and a small fire on the back of her left, and she has died her hair a scarlet shade of red.

Strolling into the centre of the room, Lusia raises an arm slightly in a wave, giving Nikos a sunny smile. "Heyo Handsome~! Long time no see.~ I saw the news,~ good job!~ You really caused quite the mess, and definitely reminded the public exactly why they're so scared of you Masters, it was very amusing to read about~."

"Amusing?" Her father's glacial voice washes over the room and Cherie feels herself involuntarily flinch away from it, hating herself for doing so, "do you have  any idea how much of my empire I have lost? And you  dare come in here and say it is  amusing?"

However, unlike all of his children, Lusia doesn't flinch back from his slowly rising voice, or even exhibit any kind of concern whatsoever. "Pretty much, yeah.~"

That was not the answer her father wanted to hear.

"You bitch!" He yells out as he jumps to his feet, storming over to the uncaring Lusia and wasting no time backhanding her across the face. The sound of the slap echoes through the room, and Cherie sees Lusia's eyes widen slightly with surprised amusement, all the while her song only sings of joy and pride and rage and lust.

Cherie is fairly certain that Lusia's face was only moved by the slap because she allowed it to be, but when she notices that Lusia isn't moving her head  back, combined with the surprise she can hear, Cherie knows that Juliette has started using her power.

Following his slap, Nikos grabs hold of the unmoving Lusia's face, squishing her cheeks in slightly as he forces her to face him. "You're going to make up for everything I've lost  personally you whore."

Though incapable of moving, Lusia's song shows not a single hint of distress at his words and actions, only the same cacophony of sounds, only with even more amusement than usual, along side a hefty amount of pride. Not in herself, but in Nikos.

She's  proud of him, even as he reaches a hand up to roughly grope one of her breasts, molesting her in front of his kids, which isn't really anything new, she's  proud of him.

Cherie is suddenly less sure about her future.

But before her father could get to outright raping Lusia, he, alongside everyone else, pauses at the sound of a phone's ringtone. Especially because each note of the tone has been replaced by a moan in the same tune.

"Ah sorry, that's me," Lusia abruptly says, rolling her shoulders as if shaking off a cobweb or something, taking a step back from Nikos and pulling out her phone, "this is the tone for important things, gimme a sec."

Standing there baffled, Cherie's father, as well as Cherie herself, turn to Juliette, only to see the girl passed out in her chair, with blood leaking from her nose, eyes and ears.

Holy fuck, Cherie thinks,  I knew it wouldn't work.

"You've reached Mary Magdalene's Magnificent Magic Massagers, how can we help you?~" Lusia says in greeting as she answers the phone on speaker, not really caring enough about privacy.

The person on the other side takes a moment to answer, no doubt holding their phone out to check that they dialled the right number, before hesitantly answering. "...Lusia, it's Uppercrust." 

Blinking at the brief response, Lusia raises a brow as amused confusion radiates from her song. "Uhhh, okay? You uh, you gonna add anything to that, or did you just really want me to know? Cuz we've known each other for like a year now, I know your name?" Her tone filled with confusion, Lusia pauses for a moment before continuing, this time far more teasingly, "Are you off your meds?~"

But Uppercrust doesn't laugh, or even make a polite chuckle like one does when a joke that isn't really funny is told. Instead, he simply lets out a sigh.

"No. Listen, Lusia. I'm just calling to make sure that you know that I had  nothing to do with this, none of us did, he was acting on his own  without informing us and we would have stopped him if we knew."

His serious words bring a sudden change to Lusia's song. Wariness, fear, dread, excitement, condescension and anticipation all blaring in Cherie's ears at the same time.

"C'mon now Crusty, why so serious?" Lusia asks, her tone light, "you're talking like someone died or something.~" She finishes with a light chuckle.

But once more, Uppercrust does not laugh.

"I'm sorry Lusia," is all he says, causing said woman to stiffen slightly, her emotions freezing with her body in the face of a growing alarm, "I'm so,  so sorry."

A beat of silence passes, and Cherie feels like she can't move with how taut the tension in the room is, an invisible  pressure weighing down on them all.

"Who." One word, spoken casually, but with the weight of a death sentence.

"I'm sorry, Lusia."

"Who." One word, spoken again, with such authority that Cherie's mouth opens as if to answer, only for no words to come out as she gapes like a fish, eye wide with fear.

Another sigh is heard, and Uppercrust speaks his answer with the tone of a man condemning himself to death.

"Fool. Jinx." His words cause the tension in the air to skyrocket, and Cherie feels like she's choking, like she can't  breathe, "he was found murdered in his home last night. I only found out just now. I'm so sorry Lusia."

But whatever he is saying, Lusia isn't listening anymore.

The moment Jinx's name was said, her song crashed and burned, sounds going off erratically and violently, even as the woman's eyes turn from a soothing green to a  cruel and  violent red, burning with a wrath that eclipses her father's ten times over.

Uppercrust tries to start speaking again, but she doesn't hear it, as the phone in Lusia's grasp is abruptly  crushed into smithereens, but Cherie can hardly even focus on the world around her in the face of the  song emanating from Lusia.

Her symphony is no more, there are no everchanging tunes, there is no joy or amusement or anything of the sort to be heard.

All she can hear, is a steadily growing  wrath. Building up and up and up.

It feels like the walls are closing in, like the world is crashing down on her as her vision darkens, as the  world darkens.

It's all Cherie can do to keep conscious as her mind is bombarded with  noise louder than anything she's ever felt before, the sound of  wrath, of  rage, malicemadnessĩ͓̟̗̲͕̰͞n̴͙͓̳͂̄̓ͅs͓̭̬̜̗̻̯͕ͥ͠a̞͉ͧͦ͑͠ͅń͉̹̖͞ͅi̞͉̟̲̩͊͗͜ṯ̸̪͙͍̖͎̰ͤy̴̰̪̘̽͂̎̆.

Sha can't breathe.

Her father moves, clearly struggling under the same weight, but the  instant that his fingers brush against the Monster's skin,  blood.

Cherie doesn't even see what happened. One moment her father was reaching out to her, and the next he was  exploding backwards in a shower of  blood and  gore, all that's left of him being a pair of legs up to the waist that collapses backwards in the silence that follows.

Nobody moves.

Nobody  can move.

None of them even so much as  flinch as their father's blood splatters on their faces.

The Monster moves. It tilts it's head slightly, head twisting to face them all, and when it locks eyes with Cherie, her mind almost collapses.

All that seems to exist are those eyes. Glowing,  burning with wrath, an aura surrounding it like the spectre of a vengeful god, it glares down on her, filling her with the instinctual feeling of being a lower life form.

No sound is made. The Monster simply turns around, and leaves.

Each step echoes in her mind like a tolling bell of the end, and Cherie doesn't dare so much as breathe until it's outside the house, gaining distance at speed.

By the time it is no longer within her range, Cherie still doesn't move. She feels clammy, her body covered in cold sweat, heart pounding in her chest.

She doesn't know how long it takes to regain her wits, how long it takes to  breathe again, but when she does, she can hardly even care for the snot and tears on her face, for now she knows only one thing, with terrifying clarity.

Death.

=================

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

my my, someone's angi~

I hope I showed this scene like I wanted it to be. I was picturing like those moments in anime with like 'bloodlust' and stuff, where a dark aura surrounds the person and their eyes are all wacky, like when Hisoka asks Illumi if he can kill Killua (just the first example to come to mind, i happens a lot in anime.)

The title is a reference to overlord too, cuz why not, it's actually kinda fitting tbh

Idk, but the long and short of it, is that lickle lusi is maaaaad~~

>:)

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