Dragons Awakened [PM/Invite]

[CharlotteC]

Charlie listened as Az spoke about how it seemed that it had at one time been a popular thing to leave the line, and in a way, she almost felt bad for them. She couldn't imagine the pain that they might have felt. Well, she probably could. Knowing her own loyalties, if she were able to create such a grand line such as the d'Artois line that she was part of now, or the Dragomir line, she would hate to see people leaving it. In a way, she would feel like a failure. But that was her, she couldn't see the same thing in the two faces of the men that she was currently speaking with, especially as the spoke of the line coming back from the darkness with their return. That was a good thing in her eyes. They may have been knocked down at one point, but they were returning from the shadows.

She then brought out of her thoughts as Az mentioned Pi and smiled a bit, though she had only met the woman face to face once, they had ended on well good terms, even though she was sure that the two of them were on two sides of the line so to speak. Then again, she was usually on the wrong team when it came to her thoughts on the masq. She shook herself out of those thoughts though and smiled to Az and Niko for a moment before someone came over to get their orders. Charlie listened as Az inquired about some kind of wine. She felt a tinge of sadness because, even though she could handle drinking and eating with ease, not getting any sort of side effect, she didn't even get the good buzz that came with drinking alcohol or even the quick perk of coffee anymore.

Once again, pulled from her thoughts, she glanced to Niko as he spoke and then back to Az. Charlie was jazzed that Az was up for meeting Elliot, now she only had to check with him to see if he would be up to such a meeting as well. Then the conversation was turned towards the auction that her line had recently hosted, something she had been a part of. She smirked a little, at the two different tones that seemed to be going on with the idea of it. And if she were truthful, which she was because she couldn't lie, not even to herself - and that pissed her off - that she was on both sides of the line.

"I don't know if it's a 'thing' persay, because I have only really been here just over a year, but they did happen this year, as Azraeth mentioned, because of the d'Artois. I think it went rather well, I participated in it, not just because of who was hosting it, but because in truth, I really need to get out more." She said with a laugh before she continued "I lucked out that it was a friend that got me and not an enemy. I try not to make them, however..." She shrugged, they knew this part already. She had been on the bad end so it was safe to say, that she had some enemies, even if she hadn't heard from them since they killed her the first time. "Still, I think that it could have gone far worse, I can't imagine the things an enemy would make me do..." She shuddered and then smirked "That said, I think Elliot would enjoy meeting both of you, Pi as well if she is up for it. The way she made it sound, she was even more of a hermit than I am." She said with a soft laugh as she looked between the two of them.

[Azraeth]

“The Handle Bar.” He said absently as Nikolae spoke, though he was careful not to interrupt his sire. “I’ve been there once. The ones I ran into seemed nice enough, if a bit…guarded. It was odd, for an establishment. I would have thought they might have been more inviting, but I suppose my appearance might have had something to do with that. I went in a suit.” Which was common garb for Azraeth. Generally all black, he had what looked like expensive taste. In truth, he just stuck to what he was comfortable in wearing, and something with clean lines, that looked crisp and solid worked best for him. That came from a time before, when he had gotten involve in the city’s politics a lot more. He had been very young then, only twenty-three with fair features. Presentation was everything in those days, because a keen mind could be looked over for one’s youth.

He had proven his wit though, just never gotten out of the habit of dressing himself with that controlled, dominant exterior.

The human returned with three glasses and a couple of bottles with the Arbor Vitae logo on them. The winery sold a selection of blood that included everything from infant to priest blood. Az did not personally have a preference for any of those, but dividing blood up by things like one’s age, occupation or virgin status didn’t really effect the flavor for him. He took note of things like what a person may have eaten, whether or not they had substances in their veins. In truth though, he mostly fed from vagrants and the homeless, people who would not be missed. More often than not, the blood itself was not all that appetizing, but at the rate Raeth went through it he didn’t have the option of being picky.

And go through a lot of blood he did; it was a necessity for him when he planned to work magic over an extended period of time. The occasional bath in that red substance was more just for comfort and the soothing effect of being enveloped by the scent and texture of something he loved.

He made no bones about viewing humans as food. Maybe that made him different to others with his same pacifistic views. Even the ones he was nice to, that was largely superficial. Even his own childer, before turning, he didn’t tend to form bonds with. It made selecting childer difficult for him, because there was some kind of block there. It was hard for him to look at something he viewed as edible and see the person inside. It was part of why, at first, he had only turned people who showed promise and potential, strength. With time that had changed. He let the ironically more ‘in touch’ part of his soul, his familiar, Magog, make the choice. The bond came later. Almost as soon as they were his blood. When they awoke from their death.

Perhaps that was odd, but that was how he operated.

The wine was opened and poured for each of them before Az offered a faint smile to the doll. “That will be all, thank you.” He said politely, before letting the man turn back into wallpaper.

“They might have made you mop in a tutu or something.” He offered. The truth of the matter was that the auctions handed all of the power to the ‘slaves’. That was one thing he didn’t get about it, and ultimately why he felt the auctions never really saw an exchange in what he would have considered a lot of cash. They were more akin to those charity ‘win a date’ dinners, where people bought an evening with a bachelor or bachelorette. The actual chance of humiliation if you did not specifically want to be humiliated was almost non-existent. And really, there was nothing that someone shelling out cash could do about it.

Which wasn’t a complaint exactly. He just didn’t see the point in it. Like playing dress up, really. Pretending to be a master. Pretending to be a slave; it was almost as bad as those people with their silk kerchiefs calling that nonsense bondage.

“That’s the one thing about this city, everyone has their fair share of enemies. The important thing, I guess, is to find those you can trust and stick with them to the end.” Even if Az did not have a lot of enemies, he still managed to get into trouble occasionally. Cinnamon Cherrywhip had attacked him at some point. Or her, back when he was Superbia. He didn’t recall the exact details because there was a lot of fuzziness in his head, had been since he had gotten out of the shadow realm. What he did recall was that he’d tracked her down afterwards, apologized for whatever it was, and thrown a telekinetic shield on her. He didn’t consider her an enemy.

He took a sip from his own blood, the thick substance sticking to the clear glass as it trickled back into a pool once he’d placed it down. “I would love that. I do love to make new friends. Maybe at that bar you mentioned earlier?”