Private Unmasked

"Yes, I was trying to say that I might need to break a law to get that information." She nodded. They were on the same page there. "And we would both rather avoid me breaking laws, I'm sure."

As Colten went on about how he could help, Violet was stunned. "I... can't say I was expecting that much help." She could tell how irritated he was, but she couldn't read why. "I was just hoping to talk it out with someone. I didn't mean to impose that much."

But if he was willing to help her like that... well, it changed a lot about her situation.

Violet sat and considered Colten. It started to click for her: Colten was partly doing this out of pride. It was a kind of pride that extended beyond himself, to the whole demon community on Manta Carlos.

She remembered feeling that kind of pride. She felt as though her circumstances has extinguished it in her, to some degree. After the incident with her father, and suffering through possession, it was almost gone. She had been becoming more and more privately bitter. She wanted to feel that kind of fervor again. Maybe she could.

"I would absolutely appreciate your help. I just... spent a while on the streets before coming here, because I didn't want to make this anyone's problem that it didn't have to be. It's hard to accept help, sometimes." She took a calming breath. "So. Did you have any countermeasures in mind yet?"

"Those would give me some peace of mind," Violet said, nodding. "I was scared of traveling to and from the school. That's when I would be most vulnerable."

She nodded for a few seconds, imagining how it would go for her to work or learn at the school again. Even with the security measures, she wondered if it would be worth it.

"Though, if I don't want to be at the school, or at least not yet, I had something else in mind. And I want to make it clear that I'm not *just* suggesting this to pay back your kindness, but also because I believe in the same things you do, and I might have wanted to pitch this at you anyway. I would like to help out more around Grovefire. And I have a lot of relevant experience."

Violet nodded. She was in interview mode too, now. Sitting up straight, shoulders back, one leg crossed over the other.

"Yes. I used to be a mother, actually." She took a breath. Fuck. The moment she started trying to do the serious interview thing, she ended up hitting on something that was really emotional for her. But it helped that she'd already cried her eyes out about it the other day - it was out of her system for now. After taking a second, and getting past any expression of sympathy Colten might offer, she would continue.

Okay. Back in job interview mode. Sitting upright, like a serious, confident, dignified woman. Almost the way Malara would sit at her desk, all CEO-like.

"So, I've already helped that boy a lot with learning how to speak English, which is his first language as far as we know. Thanks to that, I have a nice reference from his dorm parent to lean on. But my resume has things in it that could be more applicable to some of what you might need done for Grovefire. For example, outside of hell I was at one point the manager at a night club. My duties there included handling the financials, overseeing the floor to make sure everything ran smoothly, and putting in orders for supplies or maintenance.

"I also have experience with organizing fundraisers. And I have a broad knowledge of dark magics, summoning, and things of that nature, which I'm sure come up here on occasion."

Colten would probably notice that her spoken-word 'resume' sounded suspiciously like Chloe's. Chloe had even told Colten stories about managing her father's dance club, Gomorrah, before the entire structure mysteriously vanished.

Violet looked like she knew that she fucked up. Just after she had started hitting her interview stride, too. She hesitated before saying anything else.

"Well..." she sighed. "Okay, fine. If you have to ask... you've probably already figured it out. So I might as well come clean. I used to be part of Chloe Black." She was terrified of having to say this out loud. Could she really trust Colten after this point? Trust him not to act against her?

"I came into existence as a side effect of the long night. I don't have all her memories, but our family just had a really bad experience with one of our souls becoming fragmented, and one of the fragments causing trouble. So when Chloe strolls back into hell packing enough heat to give true death to a god, I guess my survival instincts kicked in, and I ran away.

"I don't really know that she wants to kill me," Chloe admitted. "But I know that if she did, basically any kind of nudging I could do to find that out would put me in danger. And I don't know what losing my part of our soul is doing to her, or if she's desperate enough to eat me over it. So... please, don't talk to her about me."

If Colten was going to talk to her other self about this, Violet was considering running away again. Finding a new place to hide.