Snippet #2441785

Kallistrate took a long sip of her drink, bringing it down to about half its original volume. "Good evening, Lovi." Eating her fig, which had absorbed just enough of the liqueur at this point to make it a nice little treat, she gave herself a moment to chew before swallowing and speaking again.

"Yes, I'd been hearing it. I was giving them a moment to get it under control, but as it doesn't seem to be stopping I'm going to go intervene." Her snakes, as usual, largely ignored Lovi as a non-threat, but the scuffle out front was raising them into a tizzy. Not that she believed Lovi was harmless, she was sure he had some weapons to bear including his cupid powers that had and could again deal with any problems he encountered. However, she'd known him and been his parole officer long enough to know of a certainty that he presented no threat to her, personally, and her snakes had reacted on that instinctual knowledge weeks before she'd come to trust him. They occupied a strange middle ground, in Kallistrate's mind, between friends and their legal relationship where Kalli had to keep an eye on him for the rest of his parole period. Whether or not they remained friends after that period was done was hard to say.

"But as I've had a long day of dealing with 'asses,' as you say, I have no compunction in knocking of few of those furry simpletons' heads together. I sincerely hope they won't keep me from my drink for long, I deserve a bit of relaxation this evening. You'll excuse me, won't you, while I deal with this?"

As she walked back towards the door, she made the decision to leave her snakes how they were. Writhing on her head and spread out in their anticipation of the fight, a few were even starting to hiss. Kallistrate knew what sight that made, and took full advantage of it in her work and off-work time. Werewolves were close to animals and humans, so her venom would likely be perilous, even deadly to them. Out front and to the side of the building in an alley stood a ring of young werewolves and a few humans, along with what she recognized as the chef of the Black Dog, Argus Lefroy, still in his wolf form.

*No biting* she urged her snakes as she tried to get them to close their mouths in a mix of an instinctual reining in and a difficult to describe sort of telepathic speech without words. Intimidation was well and good, but her venom could very well kill all but the Black Dog chef, and perhaps even him, depending on his age and strength. Her snakes calmed slightly but kept themselves spread, draping themselves in front of her shoulders or using their muscles to curl out and forward from her body. Taking a careful stance some ten feet away from the group, Kallistrate addressed them, moving her badge to her hip and sweeping her blazer away from it on both sides, her hands at her hips.

"Good evening, gentlemen," she remarked loudly, her badge glinting in the light of the one streetlamp that stood at the street where the alley began. Her crimson snakes, blue eyes wide open, were still hissing. "My name is Lieutenant Dimitriou and I'm with the Chicagoland Monster Investigators. I highly suggest that you disperse immediately, or shall I intervene and forcibly restrain you before hauling all of you back to the station?"

The circle froze, most in fear. She could tell the humans among them and quite a few of the young wolves hadn't seen her particular species before and they were torn between awe, bewilderment, and wetting their pants. Ah, the young. Kallistrate took a strong step forward and that was enough to disperse a large part of the crowd who decided a narrow alley with a gorgon was a dangerous place to be. They rushed out of the alley giving her and her snakes a wide berth. A few of her snakes decided to wriggle and half-strike at them as the young troublemakers passed, out of amusement and to ensure they did not forget the CMI was always watching them.

Taking a few more steps, the echo of her oxfords on the pavement an emphatic warning, she approached the chef. "Mr. Lefroy, may I ask what is going on here?"