coming at you fast, midnight

[cosmiccon]

Comments

[imnot_likeyou]

Okay.

[HE'S DOING HIS BEST. Sorry, Allison, you got the Winchester with Feelings^TM.]

Everything seems pretty calm, so things should be pretty straight forward from here.

[matriarchate]

OK. Start the boat up.

( She winces as she pushes herself to her feet, but manages to balance. )

[maleficum]

[David nods and they gently coast the boat the rest of the way to the island, pulling it up on shore and making their way to the door. David holds a hand over the lock, beginning to chant a spell and the ancient lock begins to slowly rotate, pins sliding into place and the door pops open.

He pulls it out of the way, revealing the hallway within. Sam goes in first, scouting ahead to make sure there isn't any trouble.

[matriarchate]

( Allison has recovered enough that she's walking fine, only hesitating with her shoulder movements, but she is back in action. Allison follows Sam, crossbow now in hand.

Is there another vampire inside waiting for them? )

[maleficum]

[There is not. The worse they'll run into here is some Colony witches, but David thinks the odds of that are low. He closes the door behind them and lifts his hand to turn on the lights:]

Lumnos.

[As the lights come on they'll see a spiral staircase centered around a series of doors that spiral upwards into the towers. David steps back, scanning over the doors until he points to one of the ones several floors up.]

I think that's our door, there.

[matriarchate]

You think?

( She stays at the ready, letting Sam take up the rear. She's used to playing through pain, being a young gymnast, so she's quickly adjusting to the pain she feels every time she moves even an inch. They're so close. )

[maleficum]

I haven't been here in a while and they might have moved some stuff around. I'll have a better idea when I get a look at the door.

[There is a method to the madness, he just has to get closer to verify, so up the stairs he goes.]

[matriarchate]

( She touches Sam's arm and encourages him to follow. She's okay. Not almost dead. Feeling even better. He can breathe now. )

[maleficum]

[Sam nods and follows David up the stairs, watching him as he squints at the identification plates on each of the doors. When he's been searching juuuuuust long enough for Sam to question if he really knows what he's looking for, David snaps his fingers.]

There you are.

[And he'll start doing some magic again, looking for any traps and alarms that he might have to worry about.]

[matriarchate]

You're kind of eccentric, you know that?

( But, also impressive in a savant way. )

[maleficum]

Eccentric is just a word applied to people who don't play along with society's dumb rules. Once you realize the rules are made to make you easier to control, they seem a lot less important.

[The door thunks open, and he pulls it open and reaches into the vault door. When he emerges, in his hand is a collection of vials, each sealed with a different arcane symbol. David handles them delicately, slowly shifting off his backpack so that he can store them inside.]

[matriarchate]

That's a long-winded way of saying you march to the beat of your own drummer.

( If his parents weren't psychotic enough to have him possessed, she'd crack that they probably told him he was a special boy when he was young. But, that joke isn't funny. Nothing about today is funny.

Her healing is coming along enough that she doesn't twinge in pain every time she moves or breathes.

She waits, eyeing the vials. )

Let me guess, do not let those drop.

[maleficum]

Nope. Big kaboom.

[But that's his problem to take the rest of the way. Sam and Allison's part of the bargain is done. Leading the way back down the stairs, he reaches for the door handle and pauses.]

So. Dropping you off where I picked you up?

[matriarchate]

( That is Sam's call, so she'll give an agonizingly slow turn as she is still recovering. It's mostly stiffness at this point. But, they got what they came for. )

[maleficum]

["Yeah," Sam nods. "We should head back to the car."]

Car it is.

[He places his hand on the doorknob of the entrance, and pulls it open, revealing the parking lot and the car they left behind. David nods and steps back to let them through, and as Allison passes her takes her arm gently.]

Thank you, for this. We're square.

[They are even, as far as he is concerned.]

[matriarchate]

Maybe this makes us friends.

( Allies, even. She doesn't want to go back and forth between doing him a favor and him doing her a favor. But, he's also on the precipice of something deep. And there's a chance she won't see him again. )

Don't do it alone.

( She doesn't know who's involved but she recognizes when something is personal. )

[maleficum]

Not planning on it.

[He knows he'll at least have Ezra, if no one else.

After they slip through to the other side, David closes the door behind them and looks down at himself. His hands are covered in blood and he sweaty and gross from the humidity, but he has an appointment to keep, so he sucks it up and opens the door to the restaurant, arriving as is. Unfortunately he doesn't have time for more than that.

But he walks in the door, bag on his shoulder and looks around to see who's gotten there ahead of him.]

[ostensively]

( Ezra reserved one of the private side rooms for them, not needing the din of the restaurant or any prying eyes or ears. They have to be careful. Which is why the private room is really a portal to another private room, one at a separate, family restaurant in Ezra's family's holdings - and one they can't be tracked to.

David finds an old childhood friend looking at one of the paintings. )

Kind of makes you think of the Flinstones, right?

[maleficum]

[It's been so long since he and Sierra have been in the same room, he has to stop for a moment. There's a weight to this, given that he knows what she's been up to, and she knows what he wants her here for.

He sets his bag down next to one of the chairs, and watches her from a distance, trying to see the strings.]

Kind of. I don't know. I always felt that one looks like it was drawn with markers.

[ostensively]

( With her guard down, machinations and months of manipulations lay at their feet between them. But, they'll get into the details. )

You've been here before? I was going to say, this does feels more like a you thing. I think maybe you're rubbing off on your husband.

[maleficum]

We've been together about a decade. I think people would be surprised if we weren't influencing each other a little.

[That's part of being married, really. The little pieces of yourself you trade to make sure that the two of you can make a better whole together.]

It's good to see you. It's been a long time.

[ostensively]

( Or, they would remain their individual selves. She and Jaqueline are not the same person, they are not similar, they are just devoted and that is enough. )

Some of us have priorities we abandon when we realize they weren't priorities in the first place. ( Just obsessions. ) It's good to see you, too, Gain. Really taking liberties with the dress code.

[maleficum]

Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to change after my last appointment.

[He glances down at his hands again, before glancing around for a bathroom.]

I should actually go clean up.

[ostensively]

It's down the hall. Other doorway.

( The waitstaff is pointedly not using the emergency exit they used to get here. )

[maleficum]

Thanks. I'll be back in a bit.

[He slips away to the bathroom, cleans his hands, washes his face and takes a deep breath. Time to put his game face on before the Melrouxs arrive and make him regret everything.

As they usually do.

Eventually he returns, and moves to officially take his seat.]