but oh what a year

[patrols]

Comments

[wereall_addicts]

Thank you, I've worked hard on it. It can be so easy for it to go wrong. Kind of like Boston.

[A pause.]

Maybe that's why I struggle so much with Boston. It's those weird vowels.

[whumpawhumpa]

Yeah, and you pahk your cah in the garage too much there.

( Though, Eliot always mastered the accent. )

You knock the harder accents out of the pahk. ( Eyebrows. )

[wereall_addicts]

[She grins, before leaning in closer over the counter, with something that is bound to be both witty and flirty but before the words can slip from her lips, a knock sounds at the door.

She glances over at the clock on the oven and raises an eyebrow as she steps back to answer the door.]

Punctual. We're putting a pin in this for later.

[whumpawhumpa]

Count on it.

( He wipes his hands on a towel, slaps it over his shoulder and then sets out two trays of appetizers for their guests.

One of said guests knocks first. )

Sophie?

[wereall_addicts]

I've got it.

[She makes her way into the entryway and pulls open the door to greet the happy couple.]

Hello! You must be Beck and Lindsay. I'm Sophie - please, come in.

[telegraphs]

( he just can't put out perfectly placed and arranged appetizers and answer the door, he only has vampire speed and precision. and he bought very distinctive platters. (strong, for if they're attacked. but ornate and beautiful so they can be washed and reused.) ) Aye. ( He lets his fiancee in first, ladies first as gentlemen say, before taking her coat. He shrugs his off as well. ) Nice to finally put a face to the name.

[wereall_addicts]

Likewise.

[She takes both of their coats to go hang up before gesturing to the dining area.]

Make yourselves at home. There are h'orderves and Eliot is finishing up dinner.

[telegraphs]

H'orderves and appetizers - canapes, all rival a main course if you ask me. ( He likes an impeccable-tasting bite. Sumptuous. Not filling. Even though he will eat a tray of them. He is why their Sling is filled with saved Food Network shows. ) Not that I'm not looking forward to Eliot's dinner. This is Lindsay, my fiancee. You come highly recommended across several networks of communication.

[patrols]

Everything smells delicious.

[Really does, she wants to shove it all in our face.]

Anything we can do to help?

["Nonsense, you're guests." Sophie finishes in the closet and makes her way back in. "Can I fix either of you a drink? Wine? Beer?"]

Wine sounds good to me.

[telegraphs]

Wine is fine.

( He prefers beer, but he goes with the crowd when it comes to entertaining or parties. Maybe he'll have a beer with dinner. Something tells him Sophie has good wine.

Hearing her offer, Eliot already has three wine glasses at the ready and starts to pour the barollo he'd let breathe, so Sophie can collect and distribute. )

The way people talk about you two, you're like a staple of New Orleans. If this where you're both from?

[wereall_addicts]

[Sophie shakes her head.]

I was born long before New Orleans existed. But I've been friends with Marcel for decades, so I have lived here before. This run has been a few years. A friend decided to set up our team here for a little while.

["What does your team do exactly?" Lindsay asks. "I know you've done some ID work but ... everyone's been kind of vague about it."]

To put it simply, dear, we're thieves. But we lean more to the Robin Hood end of the scale. Rob the rich and destroy their reputations for the poor.

[telegraphs]

Get 'em back for the damage they've done in the process.

( It's impossible to miss the news. Corporations bankrupting the little guy. Summary judgments in favor of capitalism.

He takes note of the open concept before coming to the appetizers with a hunger in his eyes. Had he had lunch day in between all the municipality meetings?

"Rob Peter to pay Paul back," Eliot offers. )

[wereall_addicts]

Precisely. We're a much larger operation than we used to be. Even still it's only a drop in the bucket. But we're at least doing something.

[She comes over with the glasses of wine and begins to pass them around.]

My team - Eliot, Parker, Breanna and Harry - currently cover New Orleans cases, which is likely why were recommended to you. If you ever come across problems in your work that are less supernatural and more up our alley, we would very much appreciate the referrals.

[whumpawhumpa]

( "Anything that keeps the brass out of my hair," he says, grateful for the wine glass, as he looks back at Eliot. )

Local government likes us because we keep everyone honest. It doesn't look good when the man strikes down the every man. Not even in New Orleans.

[wereall_addicts]

In the past, they handled things much bloodier.

[They would get ratted out to an objecting vampire or witch and they would suddenly find themselves hexed or compelled.]

But the city is trying to do better and shockingly, violence isn't as effective as it used to be. Kill a corrupt CEO and there's a new one ready to take their place.

[whumpawhumpa]

( They've helped stabilize the bloodiness and build a little bridge between the factions. Now, Beck is here to further the cause. Anything that makes their job easier, Eliot's for. )

A fish always rots from the head.

( And the person closer to the head picks up the same mantle. )

[patrols]

That it does. Especially since even arresting them doesn't seem to do much good.

[Much to her great frustration.]

[whumpawhumpa]

We replace em. Reshuffle the deck. Even reach the board if we have to. We make the difference.

( He takes a swig from his beer, checking on the meat in the pan. )

[patrols]

["We just happen to use crime to do it."

Lindsay shrugs.]

That's the kind of crime I don't mind looking the other way on. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

[whumpawhumpa]

And most times, you burn the whole damn thing to the ground. Supernatural scene here in New Orleans rebuilt itself a few times.

( Captured Klaus for a lot of years. Was built around Marcel for a long time. Now, it feels more equal all around. There are no power vacuums and Beck is a part of that. Keep everyone in check, if he can.

"Heard everyone isn't on shaky ground here. I'm inheriting stability."

It's really the humans that are the most skittish, thanks for losing Hawthorne. )

[wereall_addicts]

Relatively speaking. There was that little dust up with the hunters a few months ago, and we had some Gauntlet-related skirmishes, but no inter-faction feuds which truly did the bulk of the damage.

[Josh, Hayley and Davina have done a lot of work to keep this city from eating itself alive.]

People are doing a lot more talking than killing these days.

[telegraphs]

All outside forces. We can handle outside forces if that foundation at the center stands tall.

( A little leftover rhetoric from the patriarch of his family, but it applies here. )

Talking that gets them somewhere?

[wereall_addicts]

Most of the time, yes.

[At least Sophie believes so.]

And in ways that benefit the humans, more often than not. At least in my experience. A lot less unexpected bodies from the vampire sector.

[telegraphs]

In my experience, bodies drop in all the sectors.

( Wolf. Vampire. Witch. Nefariously, anyway. )

[wereall_addicts]

Not wrong. But vampires are prone to more likely accidentally kill something just by virtue of our diet.

[Some of the older vamps just don't like the blood bag diet. Sophie included. Maybe a little bit. But she's used to it given the years she's spent with her team.]