The spiral // Adriana&Nicky blitz

His nightmares have killed Attis a new way every night. The worst of which have his knuckles around his son's neck, forcing him to feel the moment breaths go stagnant. Better to take than have another taken.

Past all that curdled possession, he knows he's just worried. Instead of reaching out to any of his children, he kills time drowning. Liquor, not brine, he's never had his brother's flair for the dramatic.

"Nicky darling."

"Alright, sweetheart?" He tips his glass to her and slams it down against the bar after he drains the contents, watching her all the while. His week is a patchwork abstraction, bits of memories he's arbitrarily managed to hold on to. He doesn't remember how long he's been here, or whether Adriana has been watching him for a while. Only that the drinks keep coming and he certainly doesn't have enough money to pay off his tab.

Would it be in poor taste to ask Attis for a loan? How soon is too soon?

He doesn't order his drinks on the rocks, lest his body wash up on him. Nicky has always always had a fondness for dangerous things - present company included. He reaches a hand across the tabletop, welcoming Adriana's. Testing the waters if he's still capable of feeling something. It feels good to be used, to be of use.

"Word has it he's hit a mid-life crisis." Nicky snickers, masking concern with cruelty. "Erratic behavior, long nights." He says nothing about the mirror it makes, "If I were to guess, your daughter takes after her mother. She's making trouble for precious Ollie." He slides the glass to her, she knows his order.

"Why worry? If the Morrisen boy starts causing trouble, we're more than capable of making him miserable." He chews on the inside of his cheek, he's speaking of children as pawns again. "Unless you see a way we can use this to our advantage?"

He doesn't know where Adriana's love for Circe ends and where hatred begins.

Tick. Tick.

He goes rigid, gaze flicking up to hers. That's not a name that's supposed to sit on her lips. The drink drains, he fights through a haze to make his gaze focus. The smile fades, she reminds him he is only as good as his information. Oh, his brother would adore that she only looks at him through his lens. That Oleander, not Nicky, occupies her thoughts.

Boom.

Bones pop, he forgoes the drink in favor pushing back on his pointer finger. The tendons strain until they pop out of place. Alcohol's a poisonous paralytic and he's in a viper's den. He's adept at forgetting much, but it would do him well to hold on to that particular tidbit. "You think he went after my son?"

He closes his eyes and leans into the proximity, prays for death in all the ways it's come to meet him in this bar. The sound of that name settling over a hushed crowd scratches a symphony in the back of his skull.

Sometimes he wants to be a better man, but never when he's in her company. "You're right. I've been distracted." She pours herself a drink, Nicky's stomach recoils at the the thought of downing another. Yet he wants, wants all the things that would ruin him. "I hate it when you're right."

His anger will come later, when his nervous system is not so numb. For now he follows her lead, mirrors the cruelty in her smile. Lets his thoughts drift to the niece he's not even sure they're trying to save anymore. "It's risky." He runs his thumb along the crystal glass, "But if he tightens his grip enough, she might just see it for what it is."

He thinks about storms on open sea, the crest of hungry waves. Sometimes it is better to lean into the current than fight against it. "What if we let her get attached to this boy, find out exactly how my brother has been using him, and expose it?"

He grins, gazing at the rows of bottles behind her, "If she gets her wrath from you, well, I don't know if there'll be anything left for us to break her away from."

He's never been as interested in control as his brother, Nicky works in the ebb and flow of tides. "Of course I'll be there. Perhaps I can arrange a family reunion. It would be impolite to deny us access to his mansion then."