7462/Candlelight, Chianti, Conversation, and the Chaste

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Candlelight, Chianti, Conversation, and the Chaste
Date of Scene: 11 May 2019
Location: Apartment 30D, Croft Centre
Synopsis: Elektra and Matt share a dinner... and she shares her plans for the Chaste.
Cast of Characters: Elektra, Daredevil




Elektra has posed:
Because they almost never frequented her place, and because she was in a mood, Elektra invites Matt to her loft apartment in the Croft Towers, telling him it will be a late supper. Her recent days have left her considering many things - not the least of which are forward directions in areas she'd thought she'd left behind, only to find no, she hadn't, she'd merely needed to find focus for them.

She believed she'd found that.

That, and she and Matt hadn't spent a quiet evening together in some time, their respective schedules leaving only stolen moments here and there. Tonight was a night for reconnecting.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt loved Elektra's appartment, but hated her appartment building. It always made him feel like his suit was too shabby and his shoes weren't polished enough. Still it was a trial he was willing to face if it meant an evening with Elektra, which, had become entirely too rare of an event and not for lack of trying.

Enduring an elevator ride with a rich couple, who he could feel staring at him the whole way up, only grit their teeth when it was clear Matt was going to the penthouse, he steps into Elektra's hallway, and knocks on the door. He has a bottle of wine in his hand, and his cane in the other, and so armed he waits.

Elektra has posed:
From inside comes a breezy call to 'enter' - Elektra already aware it is Matthew at her door, and even if it weren't, only a fool would attempt to sneak in and up on her. She knew there were plenty who knew where she lived, and many of them (if not most) had reason to hold a grudge against her, but she wasn't afraid. Elektra had made herself a known figure even before she'd become Black Sky. Few wanted to have pointed conversations with her, and none of those in her own home.

That way lay madness.

Once inside, despite his blindness, Matt would notice that the lights have all been left at their lowest dimmer settings - those that have such a thing. The others are off. Scattered about the apartment are candles of varying heights and widths. Their presence would be warming the place, but her windows are open, as is the door to the rooftop deck attached to her suite, where, between a trellised arbor, a table for two has been set. Chafing dishes and wine bucket already waiting for the two of them.

Elektra comes from the kitchen, lips bowed over a smile. Dressed in a simple and elegant little black dress - not one meant to impress or seduce, just a simple sheath set off with single diamonds at neck and ears. Her wrist encircled with several slender bands of silver. Heels leanding to her height.

She watches him, breathing in his scent before speaking, breaking the soft sounds of breeze and windchimes with the richness of her voice, "Matthew."

Daredevil has posed:
'Enter'

Matt takes his cue and slips inside the appartment letting the door click closed behind him. Even without his eyes, he knows Elektra has tried to make tonight special. There are few lights humming, the warmth of the candles caress his skin, the sound of the city outside, the windchimes, and the shifting of silk against Elektra's skin.

His lips tug upwards in a smile, "Elektra," he says returning the greeting and letting his cane and the act it reperesents, fall away and lean against the door. "Now I definitely feel under dressed," he says with a warm chuckle as he crosses the distance to her and plants a brief kiss on her lips. "Did bring wine though."

Elektra has posed:
"Or overdressed, depending on your perspective," Elektra teases softly, returning the kiss. "You look fine, Matthew. And wine? Oh, wonderful! Shall we have it with dinner or wait until afterwards?"

The door, closed behind him, self-locks - a new addition to her security. And once he's made his greetings, she moves to turn on the stereo, gentle waves of jazz insterspersed with blues drifting from expertly placed speakers about the apartment, and, as it happens, the rooftop deck itself.

"Besides, dinner isn't really that fancy. Nor is my dress. I just felt it had been some time since we had done more then merely visit or check-in." Smiling then, "I've missed you."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt smiles, "Well, you know what we're having, does it go with a Nipozzano Chianti?" he asks. True he could tell what spices were in their food at this distance but he was clueless when it came to wine. "The lady at the store said it was good."

The self-locking is noted, but not commented on, Elektra was right they'd done little but check in since she'd returned and he was willing to just enjoy that.

"I've missed you too," Matt says stealing another brief kiss. "And I wouldn't worry about dinner, if it doesn't come from Nelson Meats, it's fancy enough for me."

Elektra has posed:
"Well, now you've gone and spoiled the surprise," Elektra laughs, of Nelson meats. "I'd hoped a coupe of hoagies would go over well... Come. We'll enjoy a glass over dinner."

Even though he doesn't need it, she offers her arm to him, reversing the traditional roles. It's a relatively innocent way to connect; to touch; to ease into the evening and remember themselves.

The spices prove to be a fairly good indicator of the meal - a Moroccan tangine, full and rich with all the expected flavours and thensome as it fails to live up to your usual American restaurant fare, but dips into the realms of authentic. Flatbreads are found beneath chafing dish domes, and the rice is perfectly spiced as well, all meant to enhance flavours, and to cool the mouth between bites so that the next is yet another delightful experience.

She pours for them both, letting him experience by his senses what she's offering. And if the smell in the apartment is anything to go by, she cooked this herself.

Daredevil has posed:
Another chuckle from Matt, "Hey, if they're not day olds..." Matt says. Sure Nelson and Murdock was making money now, but that didn't mean they said no to free food, especially when it came from family.

He takes the arm readily and allows himself to be led to the deck, enjoying that brief span of contact before they part to sit across from each other at the table. Smiling as he takes in the scene and the taste of the dishes in the air. "Mm, just like our first dinner out when you got back. Smells amazing,"

The smells do tell the tale, and he smiles, "You cooked this yourself didn't you?" he asks her, though he can smell the spices on her skin, and knew the truth already.

Elektra has posed:
"You can't prove that," Elektra teases of her making this meal herself, her brown eyes sparkling as she hands his wineglass over. She relents, murmuring, "I thought you might enjoy knowing your girlfriend was more than a pretty face. Shall I?"

Without waiting for an answer, she begins dishing their meal out.

"There were never reasons before. So many obligations and facades to present. I'm slowly learning that I get to be who I wish. The possibilities and definitions are endless."

A pause.

"You and I, we are what we are. It seems silly to spend our time pretending. I have all the money I will ever need, but it can't buy this." She gestures simply at their meal. "It pleases me to have done this."

For the same reason she enjoyed Georgian Creeds over more visible restaurants - even if that place were even more exclusive. Hidden, but exclusive to the ooint of near obscurity.

Daredevil has posed:
"I am pretty sure I can," Matt teases in return with a lift of his wine glass as he takes it from her hand. "Oh, you're pretty?" he asks his lips curling into a wicked grin. "I figured you were more than your looks awhile ago," he says. "Though cooking, that one's new," he says sounding pleased that after all these years she still could surprise him.

Matt nods at her reasons for not doing this earlier. He understood the need to pretend. "And do you know what that looks like yet?" he asks her of what she wished to be.

"I like it," he says meaning more than just the food. Meaning all of this, the solitude and the end to the pretending, it was freeing and that had always been what Elektra represented in his life: freedom.

"I'm glad you did too, Elektra," he says over the rim of his glass before taking a sip. "I think we needed this."

Elektra has posed:
"Well, you'd have to ask others what they think of my looks." In truth she was less pretty than exotic, but she was okay with that. Pretty was easy enough to find or fake. "Oh? You figured that out, did you. And when did we figure that out?"

She's smiling as she sips her Chianti.

"Cooking is rather hard to mess up entirely. It does come with directions. And I can't speak for the taste of what I produced." She amused by her own words. She isn't a chef by any means, but like so many of the other things she's tasked herself to do, the meal she's prepared tonight is excellent. "I still expect pizza, but there's no reason we shouldn't also have this."

Her wineglass held delicately,given some contemplation before she returns her attention to him, "Matthew? We hardly talk about this, my money, I mean. Does it bother you?"

They'd generally catered to his income bracket. As for the other.. Well, her question was part of the answer to that.

Daredevil has posed:
"I don't have to ask them, other people tell me all the time when you walk into a room," Matt explains with a smile. "I can feel their heads turning." Though even if they'd looked away Matt would have still been attracted to her, her looks, obviously, wasn't what appealed to him. "About five seconds after we started talking," he answers of when he realized she was more than just her looks. "Your tearing me apart made an impression."

He smiles as he sips his wine in turn. He still remembered their first verbal sparring match fondly. It put him on his heels and woke him up from an otherwise dull party.

Matt nods about cooking, "The hardest part is reading the recipe," he jokes speaking to his own blindness. Though once he experienced something being cooked right once he was usually able to do it again. When she mentions the taste though, his wine is set down and he takes his first bite, mmming with genuine pleasure. "You don't have to worry about the taste," he says. "And it must be one of the first time those dishes got used to cook it, not tasting any residue," he says, absolutely showing off.

Then, more seriously, he says, "I like that, we can do what we want when we want," he says meaning more than ordering in or cooking for themselves, but in who they were.

The question takes him by surprise. "It doesn't,' he says. "Not really, honestly I am glad you have it back, even with it all I don't think I fit in the whole society that comes with it. I don't think either of us do."

Elektra has posed:
"I'm told," Elektra murmurs, "That the dishes should be used until the spices mellow and add to each dish made in succession. Much like a teapot is meant only to be rinsed and not washed." She's pleased that he enjoys the meal, though. "I'm afraid I didn't have much time for cooking prior, and it seemed more or less a thing that who I was supposed to be wouldn't do. I am learning, though."

Laughing, and suggesting to him, "You do know they have readers, yes?" Of course he did. That's how he did much of his work when others were watching.

She eats as he answers her question, chewing thoughtfully, and washing the mouthful down with more of the wine. "I ask," she explains, "Because we seldom consider my means in what we do. It seems silly given that there are things we could be enjoying." It wasn't like she paraded her wealth around to excess, but like the ability to share this meal in the way they were - it was part of her riches... even if they could also be enjoying the same meal on his rooftop. Hopefully he understood.

"I think that day if you hadn't have approached me with such cocky sureness I might have left you to die of boredom as punishment and gone my merry way, regardless of what Stick wanted. And there you were thinking you could charm yourself into my pants with your good looks and your glib tongue. I admit, I thought about letting security show you the back alley and then finding you there to continue the conversation. I sometimes wonder how different things might have been had I gone that way."

Daredevil has posed:
"I've heard that too and it works, even if it sounds like some clever chef came up with that to help save on clean up," Matt offers with a smile before nodding at the rest. "Well, for someone who's learning, you did a good job, consider me a willing test subject for any future experiments."

"Yeah, but it's more fun to wing it," he says half-joking, that was part of it at least, the other is not wanting to lose an expensive reader to the cooking gods. Something that was less of a problem now that he was making actual money.

Matt considers Elektra's remarks about her wealth and the opportuinities it afforded them. "You mean like flying off to a private island for the weekend?" he teases, sure they had done that, but it didn't mean she didn't have a point. More often than not their dates were simple things at his place and didn't take full advantage of all the possibilities her riches presented. "But seriously, half the time it doesn't even to occur to me that you're rich, it's not an important part of who you are, you're just Elektra," he says before he lifts his wine. "That said, I am not opposed to taking advantage of it, if you're not. We both go through a lot, and well, I suppose a little luxury won't hurt."

There's a smile and a pause as though Matt was counting in his head, when he reaches three, he chuckles, "Was sure Stick would appear if I said that," he smiles.

"Good to know," Matt chuckles about his approach the night they met. "And that would have been interesting," he says about security. "Probably would have broken back into the party again just to spite them."

Elektra has posed:
"Well, you still have to clean them, but sometimes dishes are meant for certain meals and not every food you cook." Her lips form an amused smirk as she sips her wine. "I could be trying to kill you," she says casually of the taste testing. Though she's much too amused for that to be likely. And.. other reasons.

"That was fun," Elektra agrees of the weekend. "Something like that. Other simple things. I'm not disatisfied with what we've wrought, only it occured to me this was never a conversation we've had. Before there was always something making it impractical. Your life. Mine. The people we couldn't admit things to. Before we broke up there was just the insanity of, well, I don't know what we were doing then. Maybe trying to capture as much as we could before the inevitable."

Even then she'd known it couldn't, and wouldn't, last.

"So, if we were to indulge, what luxuries attract you?" Laughing as he mentions breaking back into the party. "I'd have paid to see that."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt nods about the dishes, "Someone should tell that to the cook af Josie's," he quips before grinning. "Well I am sure if you wanted to kill me you'd find more fun ways to do it." There was some truth to that besides the teasing, if she'd wanted to kill him, he wouldn't have figured on poison, no, to his mind at least she'd want the challenge of beating him head on.

"I am definitely not dissastified either, but you're right, we're finally at a place where we can actually enjoy these things and not have all the rest," he makes a face thinking of all the baggage they'd carried for all these years, the things that stood in their way... "Stop us. It works now. Even though I can't quite put a finger on what changed."

There's a warm chuckle at the question, "You're asking the wrong guy, I don't know that many luxuries..." though he still put his mind to it. "Travel would be the big one to come to mind, not just to go places, but I don't know, drink in the surroundings and the people. Honestly except for Kairos and a couple trips up and down the East Coast I've never really been out of New York City."

The latter earns a smirk, "Well we can get thrown out of a party sometime and I'll show you first hand," he says. "Though I am a lot better now than I was back then."

Elektra has posed:
"And yet, we still eat there," Elektra laughs, digging into her own dinner. "I try hard not to think too much about what might be going on in Josie's kitchen. I might not otherwise eat or drink there again."

She has a point. And so does he with his thoughts on poison. Poison wasn't her style. She liked to look someone dead in the eye when she killed them. Even when assassination was her preferred trade, that was her prefernce, the killing blow always delivered with that metting of eyes.

"I'm not sure what changed." Beyond the obvious of her death. "We grew up some? AFter everything else" - he'd know she's referring to the Hand business - "there's no more reason to hide what we mean to one another?"

That, and while she'd never been a fearful woman before, she had tried to keep the others out of the mess of her life. Now? Now she was the shadowed thing others should fear. She might not have had the urge or the need to kill since defying Madame Gao, but she'd found that fire still lived in her, only fiercely directed. It had been why she'd made the other decision she'd made.

A decision she still had to speak to Matthew about. Not that she expected he'd take it well, or that she truly wanted to, but his finding out after the fact, and from someone other than her, would be worse. Much worse.

"A party? I think that would be lovely," she says distractedly. "We should talk, Matthew."

Daredevil has posed:
"Force of habit," Matt says with an easy smile. The first time he'd gone there it had been with Foggy and so he'd grinned and bore what he could taste from the food and the drinks. after that he just kept coming for the people, be they Foggy, Josie, and eventually Elektra and now, it was just what they did. So much so, he almost actually liked the food there. "And yeah, it works best if you're having too much fun to really notice what you're eating."

"Yeah, we've definitely grown up and we don't have to fear showing what we feel either, to anyone." Some doom and gloom part of him told him that it might be true now but what about the next enemy and the next, but he was able to push that aside with the memory of their defeat of the Hand. That had seem hopeless too, but in the end they had prevailed.

He's unaware of what Elektra might be thinking as he smiles at the idea of a party, "Throw one or crash one?" he asks before those last words catch him off guard and his expression becomes much more serious. "Sure, what's up?" he asks steeling himself with a sip of his wine.

Elektra has posed:
"Throw one," Elektra says easily over her dinner. "But crashing one might be interesting. Actually, throwing several might be ideal, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

She reaches for her wine and apologizes for the abruptness, "I'd actually not thought about when I'd bring this up, but as we're lingering over our pasts and looking to the future it seems almost apropos." A swallow of chianti fortitude is taken. "I've decided to reinstate the Chaste."

Knowing that was rather an explosive statement, she still chooses not to explain until he's had moments to absorb that and offer all the counters he has. He won't listen until he's dealt with this much regardless.

Daredevil has posed:
"Oh?" Matt asks finding the idea of throwing several parties to be intriguing and surprisingly not at all uncomfortable. Maybe he had grown up after all.

What comes next causes Matt to blink. "You're what?" he asks though they both know he heard her perfectly well. Though really it was just a stall for him to realize what he really meant to ask was: "Why? I thought we'd both be done with them by now."

His expression is plain to read, he's more confused than anything, the announcement coming as a complete surprise.

Elektra has posed:
"I have an idea or two about the parties," Elektra admits, but even she knows the conversation has shifted to the other. Parties will wait. The Chaste will not.

"Not as they were," she begins carefully. "But as they should have been. Or could be."

Another sip of wine precurses her thoughts. "As long as I am, the Hand can never have their weapon, and with that, the Chaste no longer needs theirs. If I were to align, I think we both know enough that I wouldn't walk the path that first saw me as who I am now. But with Stick missing, and there being no other members, what point do they serve anymore?"

She smiles at him, "And before you say none, I wish you to understand I thought the same thing. Until I spoke with Saki."

Daredevil has posed:
Yes, the parties would wait, but Matt would be lying if he said he wasn't intrigued.

As Elektra elaborates, Matt listens his face drawn into an inscrutable line like he did when he was truly listening and not wanting to derail something by letting his expression provide a window into his thoughts on a given subject.; to simply hear the thing as it was.

"Well, you're right about what I was going to say," he admits finally. "And our talk with Saki or did you run into him again?" he asks.

Elektra has posed:
"Again," Elektra admits. "He's recruiting children. I saw it with my own eyes. One followed me home after. I won't allow this, Matthew."

Her words are calm - too calm. He might recognize that cold, resolute edge to them belied by how utterly calm she is.

"I would be all that they should have been to begin with."

Daredevil has posed:
Matt keeps his reactions locked down, though there's enough rapport between the two of them that it's likely she can see the moment of understanding there. Ah, yes, child soldiers, he could see where that would awaken some of the old Elektra.

"What's your plan then?" he asks her, still rational, still thinking like a lawyer, gathering the facts before passing any judgement, another sign of his having grown up. The old Matt would have declared the idea scarlidge by now. "What should the Chaste have been?"

Elektra has posed:
"Not fixated on bringing an ancient prophecy into being by denying a child - any child - their life." Yes, Matt had guessed correctly how this had affected her. And why.

"Slow growth. A student or two. Looking for way to counter these things. To enforce a less lenient code of ethics."

She shrugs.

"You may not agree, Matthew, but there is much we can't counter. I prefer to fight the battles I can win. Or at least the ones I'm willing to die for. The best we can do is make it clear what line we won't allow to be crossed and stand behind that."

She exhales slowly. Thoughtfully. "My head is full of thoughts. Conflicts. What we do every day is important, but I am what remains of the Chaste. How can I turn my back on that and ignore what I see?"

It almost sounds as if she's suggesting a closer marriage of samurai and ninja; more true to their roots.

"Ninpo," she says quietly. "We would be the shadows where evil fears to dwell."

Daredevil has posed:
There is agreement in Matt's nod to the first part, a slip of his neutral expression. All that prophecy stuff had never sat well with him nor how it had shaped Elektra's life. The removal of that was to him at least a promising sign.

He manages to school his face for the rest, but ultimately discards that neutrality at the end, and let's his true face show, and perhaps to both of their surprise it's not a dissaproving one.

"I can see the value in it," Matt says. "Similar to what you were trying to do with the Hand, just taken to it's fullest extent because you're not answering to the Fingers, you don't simply have to reduce harm, you can actively fight back against those who doing the harm. Is that about right?"

Elektra has posed:
Elektra relaxes visibly when he follows her line of thought to the only conclusion she was comfortable with. "Precisely. I've seen the inside of both organizations now. I understand the faults of both. The lack of each. I wish to right wrongs I created, or was part of, however unwittingly. I want to be better."

Though there is a certain undercurrent that suggests 'better' does not necessarily equate to lawful.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt for his part seems more at ease, this was ultimately a Chaste he could live with more easily than the one Stick had trained him to join.

"I can understand the need to right wrongs, especially the ones you feel you've caused," Just ask the Mr. Catholic Guilt. "And really what you're proposing isn't too much different than what the Defenders are doing, just more..." he searches for a word. "Focused." Because for all the good they did getting the Defenders to come together on a single goal was like hearding cats, often drunken superpowered cats. "Which is to say I think it's a good idea."

As for the lawful strictly speaking what the Defenders did wasn't lawful either. If you got technical, everytime Matt put on the mask in public he was comitting a crime.

Then there was the blind surly elephant in the room, "What about Stick? You know he's going to show up the first time he hears about any of this."

Elektra has posed:
"Focused," Elektra laughs softly. "That's one word for it. But ultimtely, many of them are ninja. Many of us aren't prepared to deal with them." And by saying that, she also meant many of their group couldn't live with the decisions she was willing to make to ensure certain wrongs were not repeated. Not necessarily death, but 'conversations' others might balk at.

"Stick," she answers him simply, "Had no say in this. I am Black Sky. I am what they were working towards. What is the Chaste without me? Nothing."

In other words, he'd lost all rights to the group before he'd run. You didn't just make something like her and presume to command it. Not without becoming what you hated and feared. In the strictest of senses, she /was/ the Chaste. It's final fruition.

Daredevil has posed:
Matt takes another sip of wine and a bite of dinner before it got cold.

He had to admit she was right about the Defenders not being ready for everything fighting the Hand or the Foot would throw at them. There were reasons he left people like Jess at arms length from this stuff, even though she'd strangle him for it. she'd seen enough.

"True or not, you know Stick isn't going to see it that way, he's run the Chaste for so long., been fighting the war for so long, he's got nothing left," not that the old bastard hadn't done all he could drive everything else out of his life. "I guess what I'm asking is what are you going to do about when he comes back?"

Elektra has posed:
Elektra's answer to Matt of what she'll do when and if Stick comes back:

"I'll show him what he created."