you know it isn't massacres and laughter all day long still there's something about a war

[moralitypolice]

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[moralitypolice]

( she's found records of old friends, allies, and enemies in her grandmother's things. there weren't only grimoires, but also journals, and notes. bela talbot recurred. a friend to witches, when grams used the term, bonnie knows how easily a friend can become an enemy to a witch. but, bela has only ever been able to help if she needed it. a memorial years later for her grandmother brought allies and family out of the woodwork, families she hadn't known she'd been connected to. her father and father's side of the family had tried to keep her from her mother's and her grandmother's. it's not funny that all it took was a one-way ticket, a dead mayor for a father and a legacy she's lived up to on more than one occasion.

she becomes the friend who lives overseas, only coming home for important events, which in mystic falls could mean any one event any week of any month. the girls understand.

the brightons, she'd reached out to as friends of the bennett family, and from there she'd watched danny grow up. when she was in town in london, she stayed in their town house. they were family. the farther away from mystic falls, the more family and friends bonnie found. she wanted to be there for witches of all backgrounds. she wanted to give back. too many times she was sidelined or, worse, used, or even worse, powerless.

underneath her personal journey, she kept one up for alaric and jo. the merge loomed large over their daughters' heads. when she could, when she found possibilities or heard rumors, she follows up. one such idea she'd gotten had to do with containing power. if the girls were destined to transfer it to one or the other, perhaps there was a dark object out that, one that could absorb anything between them. in this idea, they'd both be left powerless, but alive. it's not her best scenario. most scenarios she finds are contingents. the last resorts. bela exclusively deals in contingents and last resorts, or so she's heard.

she is friendly with bela, as friendly as you can be with someone you try to keep an arms length in between.

she's agreed to meet. it coincides with bonnie being in london. or, bela is there for her. she doesn't know. she doesn't ask. you ask bela for help. she knows the deal.

the cafe is small, three tables only. she's told it's intimate. it looks unsustainable. but economics are different in this city and this could be a passion project. she's been told. sit at the far table to the back, so she does. )

[maleficum]

[Bela's dodging his calls, and he doesn't like it. It's not that he's particularly attached to her work - if she doesn't want to work for him anymore, she can just come out and say so. He knows she has no trouble speaking her mind. So what is it, Bela?

Naturally, he decided to come confront her about it in person.

It's why he's currently perched at the table Bela reserved, perusing the menu. He looks up when he hears footsteps approaching, and raises an eyebrow curiously.]

You're not Bela.

[moralitypolice]

( as far as bonnie knows, she's supposed to be here, so slipping into that seat's going to happen no matter if the table is occupied or not. )

Neither are you.

( bela never mentioned a middle man. she's expecting bela or an empty table, not a closely shaved -- henley sporting white man. does he have what he needs? )

I was told noon.

[maleficum]

I ... might be crashing. I thought she was just having her regular lunch with her vampire boy toy.

[Is it wise, to call an Original vampire a boy toy? Probably not. Is he going to do it anyway? Yeah. it hasn't gotten him killed yet.

He holds out a hand to the other witch with a smile.]

David.

[moralitypolice]

( recognition - or, receptors go off, around his cavalier use of the word vampire (and pairing it with boytoy). bela would not make a meeting with him, not when he talked like that. was she the one crashing? was she meeting bela and someone else? a vampire?

she shakes his hand out of politeness, and to try and get a read. she gets a cold, dark feeling, like the ones she used to get with an enemy turned bff vampire. but, she keeps the bennett smile. )

Bonnie. Do you always crash lunches you're not invited to?

[moralitypolice]

( lunch was something, as was the warning given afterward. she hadn't anticipated seeing elijah mikaelson, but he did tend to find the pretty brunettes. or so she'd heard. the mikaelsons went from over a thousand years of nondescript activity to being quite well known throughout the supernatural contingent. somehow, everything about the mikaelsons is both surprising and not.

she lets herself into the townhouse, checking the living room first to see if danny is playing video games.

she's learned over the years to not call out like a heroine in a horror movie (or a victim). as final girl as she's become, that's never really the case in mystic falls, is it? or outside of mystic falls. )

[undermyfeet]

[He is, in fact, doing just that. He's awkwardly sprawled across an arm chair, eyes fixed on the screen as he does his best to make quick movements to stay ahead and stay on track - as any good player should when showing their Mario Kart prowess.

He doesn't look up when he hears footsteps in the hall, because that would interrupt his flow. But he will, do the dumb thing and call out into the empty house.]

Bonnie?

[moralitypolice]

( she's going to have to school you. then again, you got an international education and she got one in mystic falls, a small town worth of a horror movie.

she unwinds her scarf as she steps down into the living room high ceilings. it's a house where everything echoes. far from the low ceilings of the Lockwood properties. )

Yeah, it's me.

( she remembers mario kart. she remembers matt and tyler being glued to mario kart. and jeremy and his video games. boys.

she perches on the arm chair, eyeing the television. )

When they let me, I liked being Princess Peach. I trounced them after that, though. Probably why they never asked me again.

[undermyfeet]

Clearly, they weren't up to a challenge.

[He glances up at her with a lazy grin as he crosses the finish line. He holds up the controller in her direction. He could use the opportunity to up his game.]

Wanna play?

[moralitypolice]

( maybe. she considers it. something to do before dinner with his parents. )

I promised I'd do some of the sauce and meat prep, but feel free to keep talking.

( the kitchen with equally high ceilings? right there behind him. )

They said they'd be home around 7?

[madskilled]

( mia's a firecracker, but faith likes it. by all accounts, mia should bother her. little rich girl lost. but, this rich girl got lost on purpose. faith recognizes trying to find that purpose. mia skipped a few steps in the girl gone bad routine. faith barreled into them. spike likes her, too. although, mia's not as good at taking orders. "do you know who my dad is," only goes so far.

and not that faith or spike are the paragons of slaying or manners, or rules...

mia is of age in europe so the champagne she orders them before their hunt isn't illegal. faith and spike share the bottle while mia gets her glass. ,b>)

We ain't making a habit out of this. ( but, sure, tonight they can pregame the hunt. ) Why not celebrate your first three months. How's it feel, Gwen?

[blackstarred]

You act like this is my first glass of champagne.

[While William may have gotten all the Queen charm, Mia still inherited some of Oliver's partying tendencies. She can hold her own when it comes to liquor.

Her father would be so proud.

That being said she does take a sip, swallowing down the bubbles with a sigh.]

And it feels ... I don't know. I still feel like behind the eight ball ninety percent of the time.

[elizabethtaylor]

( spike takes the bottle in hand. )

Mia Smoak, Oliver Queen's only daughter, in an' out of the tabloids. We're right shocked you know your way around champagne.

( he sits back on the bed, kicking a leg up. )

What she means, Pet, is that usually we wait until after our big to do before we pop open the champagne.

( and it's usually whiskey.

faith for her part rolls a shoulder. "honest? know you're starting out, but there're moves you have that I couldn't teach." )

[blackstarred]

I learn fast.

[Also, you know, her dad was a vigilante. But that's neither here nor there.]

But yeah. I get it. Don't get ahead of the party.

[madskilled]

Just don't party til there's reason to celebrate. Gig goes sideways like that, then you're left holding the broken bottle.

( probably because you hit someone over the head with it. )

Even the straightforward security gigs, they tend to twist.

( bottle back, please. )

[slavophile]

( one floor up, william lets isaac the werewolf with expensive taste into their shared suite.

give him metahumans any day, fine. his dad's best friends with the flash. cool. but, werewolves. werewolves and, and witches, he'd asked. yes, witches. isaac saved his hide once, blew his mind past metahumans and made him a deal. isaac has a knack for getting lost and for finding people. he, too, might've disappeared like william's sister did, but he found a pack. like, a wolf pack? yes. a wolf pack. wolf. banshee. annoying, sarcastic humans. (he was probably talking about stiles, but william being there... well it shut him up.) isaac would help william, and william could help isaac. people hunt him. isaac makes it clear the vampire that almost killed william is not like the werewolf who wants help. william has no choice but to trust him, and, inherently does. william is nothing if not a great judge of character.

their efforts have taken them from paris, hi isaac to london, now, to a hotel he feels like his sister would choose, even when trying to keep a low profile. the reservation isn't under her name.

piggybacking on a monroe's signal had turned into william getting ambushed in an empty coffee shop, isaac again stepping in and - teeth gritting sigh - destroying his personal laptop. )

My phone, I got, I was being attacked, my phone went flying. I get aerodynamics. Any phone that high impact. It would break. But, my computer, Isaac. I can't hack if I have nothing to hack with.

( are all werewolves this careless with tech?

yes, the hunter went into the table he was using, but. BUT.

AND he still got away.

not to mention, as he shrugs off his jacket and pulls off his sweater. coffee went everywhere. him being attacked, maybe not that surprising. it tells him they have someone on their side. or they were already following isaac. probably isaac. )

I changed our name on room.

[notwitty]

Would you prefer to be the one smashed? Because I'm pretty sure you're a lot harder to fix.

[Isaac's usual dry tone belies the concern he's using as he keeps his eyes on the street, watching from all sides. Now that Monroe knows that they know she's here, he's expecting them to keep coming.

There will be another attack. Because if they're close enough that people are seizing moments of opportunity, Isaac is willing to bet that they're a little closer to the target than they thought.

He hopes this doesn't lead to a retreat. They haven't gotten this close to their activity in years. He glances back to William as he continues.]

It was either you or the laptop.

[slavophile]

( isaac moves over to the window as william turns his suitcase over, unzipping it. william's new to this whole werewolf thing, so, he has no idea how unfazed by nudity Isaac probably is. either way, he sits on the edge of the bed pushing his pants down. he is still coffee-soaked.

they're down to his tablet. )

Do you think they knew where I was or knew where you were?

( he can't backhack again in fear of leading them to the hotel. )

[notwitty]

[If it wasn't being a werewolf, it probably would have been all those years of lacrosse. Isaac generally isn't phased by much these days. He shakes his head at the question though.]

If Monroe really wanted to come at me, she would have been smarter. It wouldn't have been in public. She'd want to make a point to Allison.

[It was an attack of opportunity, and they were lucky they were on their guard.]

But with us defending you, they probably know who you are now. So there goes that element of surprise.

[slavophile]

Allison, your...

( look, he's trying to keep up here. it's only been a few days. argent, he remembers. head of his -- pack? werewolf pack? )

Sorry, it's been a long time since I've kept a low profile. ( online and rl. an acceptable sweater is found as he pulls it back ver his head. ) Not easy when you're traveling with me. But, if it really was just a smash and smash coincidence, that means they're set up nearby. And, my sister's in the same city as your alt hunters.

( forget pants, he pulls his tablet out of the bag by the door. )

Any intel on why they might be here?

[pumping]

( mickey didn't grow up with it. he was recruited in. he's heard of military families, but hunting families, they're another breed entirely. somehow, they're even more disciplined than he feels, maybe because they're experts. they have a code. since iraq he hasn't seen anything in person yet. being the only survivor of a vampire attack made him an easy recruit according to monroe. when your unit dies, you turn something to dust and you're the only witness, you're dishonorably discharged. since, he hasn't seen anything in person yet, only on feeds. but cooper swears by the supernatural and saving people. and mickey believes in it.

he used to believe in the country.

cooper's his 'partner' in this, younger than him by a few years but way more of an expert. tells him there are now two kinds of vampires (three if you count heretics, alright), all kinds of shapeshifters, and everything else you don't ever want to dream of. cooper feeds him breakfast stories and bar stories and fucking bedtime stories. he's lost friends and he hasn't known any other life. hunting is the real deal. hunting has deep roots.

it's about saving people and hunting things.

mickey can get behind it.

he buys the next round, bringing a pitcher back to his table. )

[positiveinfluence]

[Normally, Coop and Lucas are paired together, because that's how they've done most things, since they were old enough to manage on their own. Barely two years between them and thick as thieves, they joined up with Monroe together when she invoked the Argent name (though an Argent has yet to appear) they decided this was the next course of action.

She seemed to have a plan. They love a good plan.

Monroe, unfortunately, seemed to think that it was a good idea to shake things up. Swap up existing teams, and in Coop's case, train up a newbie. It's not that Cooper minds, but it doesn't help the doubts that have been creeping in as of late.

For example - what are they actually looking for in London?

But Mickey likes a good story, and Coop likes telling them. While Mickey's at the bar, Lucas slides over with his new partner, an old Argent hunter who's been with the cause longer than the boys have been alive.

Lucas smirks as he claps his brother on the shoulder. "Giving your newbie a run down of the classics?"

Coop smirks as he takes another sip of his beer.]

Better he knows what he's getting into.

[pumping]

( Mickey likes a good story and the more stories he hears the more dedicated he becomes to the cause. For him, family's also everything. Cooper's family is close and not just close, in the cause, too. It's weird knowing there was a cause before the cause. People used to this without organizing. Helped real people under the radar. This is better. More tactical. More people being helped at once.

They still don't quite know what's here.

But, that's what soldiers do. Go somewhere, wait. Stand down. He's good at standing down. Even better at keeping alert.

He brings the pitcher back to the table, sliding in besides Coop. )

I sprung for the Guinness boys. What'd I miss?

[positiveinfluence]

["Just making sure my brother's been giving you all the highlights," Lucas grins, before reaching for one of the beers. Weller gives him a look, and Lucas scoffs. "C'mon man, it's one beer. Loosen up."

"They're off duty tonight. You're not."

Coop's brow furrows.]

What are you doing tonight?

[pumping]

Thought tonight's our off night.

( He digs out his phone, double checking. )

I got the 'stand down' text -- ( He thought like everyone else did. ) There's something we don't know? ( turning to Coop, his brow goes up, indicating themselves with a thumb. ) Are we B team now?