d'Artois: Events in Time

[Pi dArtois]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

‹Kainai dArtois›"I agree. It is good to keep in touch, and I am sorry it has been so long," Ruth said, giving Pi's hand a squeeze. "When I was a human I was always avoiding everyone like this," she said with a gentle smile of regret. "But enough of that, I am managing. My businesses are all running so well they practically manage themselves."

‹Pi dArtois› "You sound like Elliot." Pi said with a smile, "He has a much better business head than me. It's not like I can complain about someone being absent. I've been known to go MIA myself a time or two. Like the last ... nine months." And it was true, Pi had been gone. Maybe not in body but certainly in spirit. She didn't much feel like talking to anyone in those months, chose to be her own company, or Elliot. But no one could live in that level of isolation for long. And she didn't want to. Plus she missed Ruth. "Have you... seen much of..." God, Pi had forgotten his name. Ruth's husband.... the guy who had liked to dress up as ... god, Pi couldn't remember what that was either, something ugly with dreds. "Alistair?" her face showed her apology at potentially getting the name wrong. "Sorry if I got his name wrong..." she said quickly, hoping to hell she hadn't, but thinking maybe she did.

* ‹Kainai dArtois›smiled gently as she recalled spending time at Lancaster's. Elliot was a good businessperson, one she aspired to be like when she was just starting out. Now her businesses often made top tier net profits every day. Ruth was getting quite a fortune. She didn't know what she was going to do with all of it. Ruth's expression saddened when Pi mentioned Allistair. Not a trace of him. "No," she murmured simply, eyes on her lap.

‹Pi dArtois› "He's disappeared again?" Pi asked, getting right to the same problem that had been an issue the last time Ruth ... well, they had agreed not to talk about that. "Are you okay?" She asked then, now knowing really how Ruth was taking the... distance that had obviously grown between her and the man she loved.

‹Kainai dArtois›"I will be. He was a good man and I benefited greatly from my time with him. Eternity was simply too much time for us, I suppose." She had been expecting to be bound to him forever, but he had gone to the shadow realm, then his spirit had vanished completely. Ruth had no desire to love anyone in that way again.

‹Pi dArtois› Standing, Pi came forward and hugged the woman briefly. "I didn't want to bring up something that made you sad. But maybe you're right... eternity is a long time. If you need me... for anything, just call ... you know where I am.. And I'm here if you need."

‹Kainai dArtois›She returned the hug and smiled, actually feeling better. Pi had always been there for her, showing her that someone could survive and make it as a vampire after all. The others under Reverend Luciferum had perished, but not Pi. "Of course, and I am here if you need." With that, she stepped back. "I am afraid I have to go take care of something on the farm."

‹Pi dArtois› "Alright." she replied, stepping out of the hug and giving them both some distance. "See you soon Ruth."

[Pi dArtois]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

‹Reilly› It had been either three or four days since the telepath had tried sating his hunger within the confines of his sire's business and been tricked by a vampire hunter, and subsiquently shot in the head. The new gaping hole in his cranium had been driving him a new sort of crazy, which led to him wandering the sewers in search of the chemicals needed to make KO bombs when he'd stumbled across another hunter that shot him in the shoulder. "Damnit all!" he bellowed throughout the sewers. "Elllliiiioooot" his voice whined into his sire's mind. [/i]"I made a boo-boo... can you come make it better?"

‹Elliot dArtois› Elliot had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows as he bowed over the desk in the music room. Sometimes, he needed just a little bit of silence; what the cushioned wall and the airtight door, he could hear nothing but the ringing in his ears. The music sheets were strewn out in front of him; every now and again Elliot would hum some, and then scribble lots. He leaned back - was in a particularly deep musical reverie when his inner orchestra was blasted apart. He jerked in his seat. The bullet wounds from the night before were still hurting some, and Elliot hissed at the sharp movement. Well, ****. Reilly. Elliot cleared his throat and exited the room. Pi was waiting for him - he was going to showcase a new song to her, but that would have to happen later. "Reilly needs.... well, to be healed I think," he says. At the same time as reaching for his jacket to pull it on, he focuses and shoots a message back to Reilly: "Where are you, mate?"

‹Pi dArtois› “Again?” Pi answered, her eyebrow raising. She was dressed from her jaunt in the sewers, jeans, black shirt, boots that didn’t let the dank water seep in. A bowl sat in front of her, the batter for the blueberry and cream cheese muffins ready for the trays and preheated oven when Elliot entered. The smile she’d had drifted to a frown at the thought of their banker hurt again. Or of Reilly hurt in any way in general. Not since his disappearance had she thought him in trouble, until now. Now, last night’s request for healing took on a whole new patina. She’d sent Cartis because Elliot had been so injured he’d needed so many pints she’d nearly emptied their Den shop of its entire stock to keep him from passing out. Now she wished she’d gone herself, even if at the time she knew it had been impossible. Stepping away from the counter she dropped tools, turned off the oven and reached for her light jacket (to hide her gun) she stood by Elliot. “I’m coming.”

[Lancaster]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

‹Reilly› Relief was nearly immediate despite the fact that the only thing that had happened was an answer, but it was in part due to where the answer came from. Reilly grinned inwardly at this thought then took a look at his surroundings and despite not being overly familiar (or fond) of the sewers, he recognized exactly where he was. "Southwestern portion of the sewers, just a bit away from where the Den can dump you?" It sounded more questioning that he had intended which he blamed on his damaged state and the fact that it was the best sort of direction he could give. The man hobbled over toward the edge of that particular tunnel, resting on the side where maintainance workers would typically walk to avoid the deepest areas of water and slumped down out of the way of other 'traffic' in the area. "I swear, I'm calling this cesspool off for good... nothing useful ever comes from my venturing down here..."

‹Elliot dArtois› Elliot's head canted to the side, expression screwed up into something resembling concentration. He took the directions that Reilly gave him and applied them to the mental map in his head. When he opened his eyes it was to hold his hand out for Pi, opposite hand reaching for the tome. It'd be the easiest way there. "The sewers. Newborough drop," he said. His shoulder was raised in half a shrug - he was as curious as Pi as to why Reilly was getting himself into so much trouble. He didn't like Reilly being in trouble. A simple tome back to the Den, and a swing through the portal to the sewers. And then they would see what they would see.

‹Pi dArtois› She nodded as Elliot spoke and used her Tome to get first to the Den, then quickly again to the portal that would take her where she needed to be. She smiled as she traversed the length of the city in a few seconds. This is why they had created this place, so they could do things just like this. At a moments notice they could port around the city and place themselves where they needed to go. Reilly was a mess. The shoulder was obviously injured but it was clear that it was the head wound that was the biggest issue and she tutted silently in her head. Moving to his side she helped prop him waiting for Elliot to come forward to heal, her voice soft. “What have you done to yourself.” She asked. She could have healed Reilly herself, but she didn’t. He had asked for Elliot and as his sire Pi respected both this, and Reilly’s request for his Sire’s aid.

[Reilly]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

‹Reilly› During the very brief period it took Elliot and Pi to get from wherever they were to where he was, he remembered an instance where something similar had happened. One major difference between that occurance and this was that he was neither kidnapped nor being abused by his 'saviors'. Instead the two who came to his aid were the first he would ever be likely to ask for help from again. His eyes had either drifted shut or glazed over enough that he didn't realize they were even present until Pi was helping prop him up. "Funny story, that. Oh wait, not funny," he chuckled briefly before hissing a breath through his lips. "First, laughing is bad; I'm doomed. Second, no more living food for me. Third, I should consider a hat while this heals. Fourth, what possessed me to wander down here already mortally wounded?!" A laugh started to bubble in his chest, which he quickly squashed by roughly digging his fingers into his upper thigh.

‹Elliot dArtois› Elliot approached with a concerned frown upon his face. He crouched down on Reilly's opposite side; the amount of times Reilly had helped Elliot out, it was only right that Elliot should pay him back, somehow. Though he knew this was nothing about tit for tat. Regardless of what Reilly did in his down time, Elliot would help him. Reilly was Elliot's childe. Elliot could do no less. He rested a hand on Reilly's shoulder and focused on the healing. He, too, chuckled under his breath, a low reverberating sound. "We all like to bite of a little more than we can chew, sometimes," he said. And he was a perfect example, given his state the night before, all sprawled and bleeding from six or seven different holes.

‹Pi dArtois› It was just like Reilly, the man they (they being Elliot and Pi) had come to rely on. She smiled at his rejoinder and shook her head. He made of joke of his wounds and attempted to put them at ease when he was obviously in so much pain himself. Just because they were immortal didn’t mean they were immune to the feeling which came from being wounded. The only certainty they were granted was the one that despite the overwhelming agony of what they suffered, they would survive. Some would call this an amazing thing. But she knew, sometimes a level of numb lack of consciousness would be bliss. At Elliot’s words Pi’s smile widened. “Oui.. he should know.” Pi said. “You should have seen the state of Elliot last night Reilly, it’s why I couldn’t come when you asked… and sent Cartis. Elliot needed… how much blood?” she asked Elliot, trying in her way to redirect Reilly’s attention away from his own misery with a little teasing of her own, watching as Elliot moved to heal.

[Pi dArtois]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

‹Elliot dArtois› Elliot had been sitting on the computer in the office of Lancaster’s. He didn’t quite know what his problem was lately, but he wouldn’t admit to Madison that she was in any way right. Once upon a time he might have; he might have agreed, and taken a step back. He might have said that he would try to do better. But instead, he found his mood bleeding onto the forum’s page; there was something about the internet. Something about hitting that ‘post’ button that wasn’t quite real. As if he weren’t really talking to other living, thinking beings, but instead was able to lose himself in his anger and bitterness.

He knew that it had to do with Skylar, and it had to do with Doc. The night that Skylar had been sired, even, he hadn’t been feeling himself. Restless took hold of his soul and he didn’t know how to make it go away. And he didn’t want to bring it up with Pi. He didn’t want her to think that he wanted to run away from her, or from the life that they had built here. Because Lancaster’s was still a project that he invested all of himself into. He loved this place, and he loved what it had become. He didn’t want to leave it, but still. Still, that restlessness loomed.

And then Skylar happened. And, simultaneously it would seem, Doc felt the need to make himself a bigger presence in the family; more active. Elliot didn’t want the family to be active with Doc in it. He knew he would never feel ‘united’ with Doc. He knew that everyone assumed his issue with Doc was pure jealousy, but it wasn’t. Sure, that was a large part of it. But it wasn’t all of it. And he couldn’t understand how anyone could accept Doc and his sadism. He didn’t want to think that Pi accepted and condoned such sadism.

And Skylar? Skylar was an accident. Skylar should be living her life happily, not dead. But because of Elliot, she was dead. The same old guilt and shame compounded Elliot’s restlessness and his anger, and it made him bitter. Irrational. Far too negatively emotional. He slammed the lid of the laptop down and yanked the tome from his pocket. He read the words and near immediately appeared in the Den. Nearly toppling right into Pi. His wife, in all else but the actual ceremony.

‹Pi dArtois› Her and Elliot were the only ones who had tomes that deposited them directly into the heart of the Den. It was a matter of trust and practicality. She had been in this city too long and seen how fast loyalties could change and trust could be shoved to the side for expediency that anyone other than Elliot was refused this ability. Everyone else would be transported to the basement level and needed to catch the elevator up. An elevator she could customize with access permissions.


She sat at the Rituals table brooding. She wasn’t a brooder, she was a doer. It sometimes felt like some of Elliot’s idiosyncrasies had rubbed off her on her and this need to percolate over what was going on what a direct result of exposure to his brand of dealing with problems. So here she sat, at the rituals table doing nothing much more than brooding.


It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realise where either of their emotions were coming from. Their reactions to each other, to Skylar and Doc were ridiculously transparent, as much to themselves as to the rest of the family that were probably reading along with their eyebrows arched.

Elliot and Pi hadn’t been this emotion before. They certainly hadn’t aired it where other people could see and read and follow along like a gothic penny novel. But she’d be damned if she’d continue to bottle up how she felt about this new addition to the family because she was afraid how others would take it. She had learned the hard lesson that it didn’t matter how much she tempered her response, and tried to make people happy, they never were and trying was an act of futility.

So she brooded. She brooded about the new childe’s obvious belief she could joke about something like that and then brood more about the fact she took it so badly. Pi wasn’t emotional by nature. She had always kept her emotions as evenly keeled as possible. She wasn’t a person prone to temper tantrums or steep emotional roller coasters but in this, she couldn’t, wouldn’t back down. And brooded about Doc because she Elliot was beign just as unreasonable and she tried like hell to understand but was failing. She’d just met with the man in an effort to heal the breach and Elliot was determined to shove him the hell out of the family, *** first. Her small hands clenched and she slammed one of them onto the table, making the thing rock and the contents spill over, zombie ears rolling across the surface in a macabre scatter.

When Elliot appeared Pi shifted automatically, pushing the chair she sat in back, taking to her feet in a smooth push and didn’t avoid being shoved against the table as the tome brought him within spitting distance of her and of the heavy wood surface now littered with ritual items. “You!” She greeted with a growl. “What, is going on with you?” she opened, getting right to the point and hammering it home with an expedient finger to his chest.

‹Elliot dArtois› The growl and the immediate finger to the chest had Elliot scowling, his eyes narrowed though he stood his ground. It took only a moment to realise that it was Pi he’d run right into, and it was probably a good thing, too. The two of them needed to talk – though Elliot was caught off guard with this one. He couldn’t go into this discussion level-headed and calm, with his points all neatly lined up like good little soldiers. No, instead he got a finger to the chest and an accusation, as if there was something wrong only with him, and not with her, too.

“Me? What the **** is wrong with you?!” he asked, not yet shouting but voice still raised. A little off kilter. Why were they even asking each other these questions? They knew exactly what was wrong with the other and there was nothing, really, that could be done about it. Nothing beyond attempting to temper their own emotions.

“What’s with threatening Skylar, huh? You know she called me in tears? You scared the living **** out of her, Pi. She’s so new to all this and to have someone threaten to shoot her, straight off the bat? That’s not ******* cool!” he said, throwing his arms up in the air. He knew that Pi knew he could not lie. The truth ripped from his throat before he could stop it. “I have no interest in her, Pi, and she’s got no ******* interest in me. So let it the **** go,” he said. Skylar had been in tears because he had not defended her – he had been thrown, by Pi’s use of the word ‘husband’. But he defended her now.

‹Pi dArtois› “You don’t get to tell me to be reasonable when you fly off the handle at Doc for every little damn thing he says. At least MY childe isn’t tell me to KISS IT BETTER!” she growled at him. She wasn’t yelling but it was close enough to it without it actually being a yell and she stopped pounding her small little finger at his chest but she propped herself against the table to make herself taller so he didn’t’ dwarf her so much. The casual dress she wore fell past her knees and bunched at her waist a little as she hitched herself up.

“I don’t care if she’s new, what I do care about is you’ve managed to sire yourself another hysterical clingy female. I had to deal with Irene fawning all over you … I don’t, won’t deal with another one. I just won’t.” Pushing him to the side she tried to elbow past him. “Give me some damn space!”

‹Elliot dArtois› He let her out. He gave her space, but his body turned to follow her every movement, his gaze not once leaving her petite form. He wore what he usually wore when at work; jeans, scuffed leather dress shoes, and a button-up tee with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Unironed, because he was lazy. Haphazard hair fell over his face and agitated fingers pushed it out of place again.

“That’s ******* ******** Pi. Get your mind out of the goddamned gutter and think for a second. You might not have had the same kind of childhood as the rest of us, but kissing it better isn’t something only sluts and skanks say when trying to get into a guy’s pants. It’s something children ask their parents to do. A bloody societal norm, growing up, was that parents were supposed to have nice magic powers to make everything better again,” he said.

“What are you going to do about it, huh? Drive her off? Make her fend for herself? Kill her? It was my fault she died so I’m going to look after her, get it? She’s my responsibility and I’m going to care for her like I do every other person whose life I’ve fucked up. You will NOT drive her off, d’you hear me?” he said. Yeah, he was still giving Pi her space, but if she should try to run away from him, he’d follow.

‹Pi dArtois› Pi spun back around her expression mutinous and a little hurt, shoving her hair out of her eyes she had to restrain herself from throwing her hands on her hips and stomping her foot, instead she held her clenched fists at her side, her whole body vibrating. Her childhood was a mess, and he was right, she hadn’t had a compass to guide her about what was appropriate and what wasn’t, but jealousy worked that way. She wasn’t sure having a white picket fence, with doting parents would have made much difference, it certainly hadn’t with him.

“What about you then? Are you planning to drive Charles off too? Is that your plan with your repeated statements about how much you hate him? Is that what you’re trying to do as well. You can’t stand there and tell me not to do something you are obviously doing yourself!”

“Skylar ISN’T your DAUGHTER and she doesn’t get to throw innuendo out about how she would like you to kiss her anywhere for any reason and if you thought about it for five seconds instead of blaming me for being jealous you’d see why!” Skylar wasn’t a child and Elliot wasn’t her father and you don’t get to pretend that’s the case after knowing a person for a grand total of a week. Reilly wasn’t coming around asking Elliot to kiss it better and neither was Doc asking her the same thing and if he thought it was okay that this new child of is could, then it was good they were getting it cleared up now because she wasn’t happy about the fact this one thought she could. No matter what normality it indicated in a ‘normal’ family.

‹Elliot dArtois› Elliot laughed, then. He couldn’t help himself. “I know she’s not my daughter, Pi. I get that. Did you see me thinking about it? At all? No! I didn’t. Why? Because you called me your husband and I was thrown for a loop. I failed to defend Skylar at all and that scares the **** out of me, because it means I’ve become far too comfortable with YOUR innuendoes. Not about sex, but about violence. You want the truth? I wasn’t think about kissing Skylar at all. I was thinking about kissing you and I shouldn’t have. I should have instead told you to never, ever threaten her like that again. Are you seriously saying you’ve got a problem with someone acting like a daughter?! Shouldn’t that make you happy?!” he asked. Seriously. Better than Skylar thinking she had a snowball’s chance in hell getting into his pants, and doing what she could to make it happen. Wasn’t it?

“And don’t you even dare compare her to Doc. For one – I never ******* slept with Skylar. YOU slept with your precious ******* Charles. Two? I don’t hate him just because I’m jealous and you know this. He’s a slimy worm who likes to kidnap and rape Paladins before turning them. He’s an evil son of a ***** and he makes my skin crawl; it makes my skin crawl to think that you accept his fuckery. That you condone it, that you could forget about it,” he ranted. He’d told Pi all about his conversation with Cytherea; it was from Cytherea that he had discovered Pi’s former relationship with Doc, not from Pi herself. It rankled.

“Those are the reasons I treat Doc the way I do, just as much as I hate him anywhere near you,” he said. He felt the truth in his own words; he didn’t believe that Doc would do any of them no harm. And he didn’t want anyone he cared about to be infected and swayed by Doc’s smarm. “How can you do it? I can you care for someone like him?”

‹Pi dArtois› Pi opened her mouth to reply and closed it again, he’d thrown a lot at her and she had no idea where to start a response. None of it was good, and with a frustrated growl she used the palm of one hand to rub her eye, trying to push away the tension seeping from behind her eyelids. She ignored the husband comment for now because that, felt like a good thing in the middle of this **** storm of bad - the one thing that had felt right when she’d said it even if she’s said it at someone for all the wrong reasons. “I’m not going to run her off, if she can keep her hands and her lips OFF you.” Pi hissed at him, concentrating on the thing that had first brought them to this place. “And by God, if her whining at you over the telephone results in this tension between you and I … then I’ll change my mind about that too. It’s simple really.” She continued as calmly as she could, even if she wasn’t feeling calm at all. “She either learns to keep her hands to herself, and heeds what I said, or she can deal with me and better she understand that now.”

“It was ONCE Elliot? ONCE!. It was a mistake, a horrible, stupid mistake and it was my fault!” She yelled at him this time. “Just like Irene was YOUR fault and Skylar is YOUR fault, Charles is mine and I have to make up for it somehow. And you don’t get to make me pay for that over and over again. It was a bad decision and because of that bad decision he… tried to …. I had to make it right.” Pi stopped and shut her eyes. She can’t remember telling Elliot what Charles had tried to do to her then, the hack saw the doctor had used on her to try and hack into her still conscious body. They both had their guilt and Pi had held hers for deceiving a man into believing she was human when she obviously wasn’t, of encouraging him to fall in love with her when it was an impossible future.

“We have both done things we aren’t proud of.” She hissed now, throwing his words back at him, changing the subject. “I’m not going to ask Doc if he raped someone! How do you expect me to do that? And why would I judge him anymore than myself for murdering people? Which is worse? We murder people yet you think I need to measure his sin with a different stick? I don’t CARE for him… I never did. Even when I slept with him…... even then, it had only been you.” She admitted, turning away and shutting him out with a sweep of her hand.

[Lancaster]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

‹Elliot dArtois› Elliot didn’t know why he had brought it up. Why he had to mention the fact that Pi had slept with Doc, when he’d railed against the way that she had treated Irene. He had told her then that she couldn’t blame Irene for the past, so he couldn’t rightly do the same to Doc. It was the past and shouldn’t impact the here and now – but Irene was no longer around. He assumed it was the fact that he had beat the **** out of Lex for just dancing suggestively with Pi; Irene had been witness. She’d known then what it had taken Pi and Elliot far too long to realise themselves. That they were in love with each other.

“Irene’s gone, Pi, and I’m pretty sure we’re the reason,” he said, his voice softening just a little. He didn’t like arguing. He wasn’t the arguing type. He liked to laugh and soothe things over with well-placed words. But when it involved Pi, and the things that he cared about – he flew into a rage. He tried to breathe; tried to summon some modicum of calm. How could he not, with what she had just said? That it had only ever been him. He wanted to approach her from behind. He wanted to spin her around and trap her jaw in his fingers; tilt her head up and claim her lips. But he didn’t. He stayed where he was with his arms hanging awkwardly at his sides.

“Skylar’s not going anywhere, and what I’d ask from you in regards to her is just a little bit of human common decency. To say we’ve both done things that we regret doesn’t at all dissuade me from wanting to make sure she gets along okay. After the way you’ve already treated her I doubt she’ll be coming anywhere near me. I really would prefer not to drive her off, too,” he said. And maybe they would. Maybe their constant bickering would drive everyone away until it was just the two of them. He twitched.

“I try not to murder anyone, Pi, and when you do …” he shook his head. Why could they talk about this as if it were normal? “… it’s not for sadistic pleasure. That’s you measure it. He seems to be the type to enjoy it. Do you? Do you enjoy murdering people, Pi?” he asked. And he didn’t know why he had asked. Did he really want to know the answer?

‹Pi dArtois› The question felt like a trap and one she wasn’t sure he would like what she said and she didn’t know how to give him an answer he’d be happy with. And for a moment she didn’t speak at all, instead her shoulders slumped forward, her back still to him as she brought her fingers to massage the space between her eyes. “Yes, no, not like he likes it, not like he… does it.” And she knew what Charles liked to do now, a sociopathic assumption that anything he did in the name of research was ‘okay’. “I’m good at what I do.. but its’ not because I enjoy it. Not like that.”

Was it really any better that she didn’t enjoy it? Would it make him feel any better than her reasoning for what she could and did do was ‘better’ than the reasons Charles had? She didn’t think so.

And she knew Irene was gone and she knew her and Elliot were the reasons for it but a very small part of her was glad, so inherently glad that the ‘other’ woman wouldn’t come back, because Pi couldn’t have dealt with that well either. It would be worse, worse than Elliot with Doc - Pi wouldn’t have been able to stop herself, she’d have pushed and pushed and pushed until she’d driven the woman away. But she really didn’t want that for Skylar. She hadn’t built d’Artois and Canidae just so her jealousies alienated everyone, but she wasn’t reasonable where Elliot was concerned and he needed to know that. If nothing else, he needed to protect her from herself. In order to do that, he needed to know what flipped her switch and this… assumption on Skylar’s part that she had access to Elliot’s body in any way, was a serious trigger.

“I can drum up some ‘common decency’ Elliot.” She whispered, insulted that he felt the need to point out the fact she wasn’t capable of it without him sign posting it for her. “but I will hurt her if she touches you.” Pi said blandly, turning now so he could see what was in her face, and that her expression held her truth, whether he liked it or not. “After everything I said on the family crow, if she goes down that path, I won’t react well and I’m giving you warning that this is how I feel about it so you can help manage how she acts around me… with you. So, I will find my ‘common decency’ and try. But she will need to learn. Or this won’t work, I won’t be able to not hate her for getting between us. Can you do the same with Charles?”

‹Elliot dArtois› A muscle twitched in Elliot’s jaw. He figured Pi must enjoy killing at least a little bit in order to like it, but he had rationalised. She didn’t pull some innocent off the street to torture them before killing them. She worked methodically, and killed for what she believed it. It might not be the same thing that Elliot believed in, but nonetheless. He would never compare Pi to Doc. Would never take her nature out on her, because he’d already concluded that it was her very nature that drew him to her. Violence for their kind could not be avoided, and she balanced him out. He needed her, in order to feel comfortable. In order not to spin out of control and tear his own heart out simply because it didn’t beat. Because he didn’t feel human anymore, when that was the one thing he wanted, above all else.

Not above Pi. He amended the statement in his head. He wanted Pi above all else, which only led them to this. This argument, because she obviously felt the same. But in the process they were causing others pain. But he could not entirely agree with her deal. It didn’t sit right with him. Sure, if he hated Doc for all the same reasons that Pi seemed to hate Skylar, then yes. He’d have been able to agree wholeheartedly. He stood still, silent for a few seconds before responding.

“I can agree as regards to ‘Charles’ only as it concerns you. I do not like him near you, just as much as you do not like Skylar near me. But you cannot make me change my mind, or my behaviour toward him for all the other – and I think reasonable – reasons why I do not like him. His moral compass, his conscience is entirely opposite to mine, and we’re never going to get along,” he said. He nodded, even in regards to Skylar.

“She won’t ever touch me in the way you think she might. But I’ve never been a man who was overly protective of his space. You gotta know that. A hug every now and again is harmless. She’s an Allurist like me – she’s going to freak out about things. And she’s going to want to comfort. If it’s a hug, Pi, if it’s as harmless as a ******* hug, you won’t touch a hair on her head,” he said firmly. And then, before she could interrupt, he agreed. “And I can do the same, with you and … whoever else you might want to hug. Just a hug,” he said. And he could pass this on to Skylar – for her own safety. Because he could see that Pi wasn’t going to back down so easily.




‹Pi dArtois› The last sounded like an order and Pi’s hackles rose at the tone. “Hugs aren’t always harmless Elliot…” She knew she was being unreasonable and wanted to take back what she was feeling so it fit in the nice little box of acceptable amounts of jealousy that Elliot wanted, but she found it so damn hard. It felt unnatural to let another sniff around her mate and the wolf under her skin moved as emotion overwhelmed, her eyes shifting from blue to wolf brown, back to blue again.

Pi didn’t want to hug another man, couldn’t even remember the last time she had wanted to touch another man at all. Maybe Reilly? Had she hugged Reilly when they had found him that night, disoriented and lost? She couldn’t remember ever reaching out and taking a hold of him and he was the only male she could think of where she’d be inclined to. Pi shook her head, trying to reconcile when this would even come up between her and another man? Maybe never.

Pi didn’t like the idea of Skylar hugging Elliot and her continued mutinous stare gave away her displeasure at the idea but she nodded anyway, because she was trying to compromise even if her disbelief at anyone ‘needing’ to be hugged by a stranger who they hadn’t known last month was pretty high. But for Elliot she would try. And the wolf agreed, sending her images of pack huddled together in the middle of a den, wrapped around one another for warmth. Touching could be innocuous, the wolf was telling her, as long as the ***** didn’t sniff around Elliot, and in her way the wolf tried to calm Pi’s fears too. Even if she was doubtful. Even as her eyes narrowed at his mentioning that Skylar was an Allurist. Pi submitted, however ungraciously.

“but I said I’d try… it’s the best I can do.” Pi didn’t know what to do now that they’d stopped yelling at one another. It felt like a compromise but she was still feeling raw and uncertain and she stood there not knowing exactly how this was supposed to end. But she did know that standing there feeling lonely when the man she loved was one step away was stupid so she closed the distance, slipping her hands around his waist and fitting her cheek against the pillow of his shoulder. It wasn’t about sex, angry or otherwise, it was about comfort and trust and the need to feel him surround her. She tucked her fingers into the back of his jeans shaping the small of his back with her palms and let herself lean into him. “I’ll try.” She murmured at last, and with it, the very end of her fury at the woman he’d just turned.

‹Elliot dArtois› Something broke and relaxed inside of Elliot when Pi slipped her arms around him. It was the easiest thing in the world to wrap his own arms around her shoulders and to press a kiss to the top of her head. They would say that heat rises; that it would escape through the top of one’s head. Which was why they recommended wearing beanies in Winter. Why he had never liked to wear anything on his head in Summer. There was no heat radiating from the top of Pi’s head, however. But that didn’t matter. He could feel all manner of other things radiating from her; he knew that she meant it. That she would try. And he grappled with the idea that he would have to be amicable toward Doc. The man whose name he couldn’t utter without spitting it, as if it were something nasty stuck in his throat.

In the end, he and Pi were two incredibly different creatures. He was sociable where she was not. He was welcoming and warm – he did like to hug people, and throw his arms over their shoulders in comradery, to nudge and shove playfully – where she liked to keep herself apart. Elliot wanted to be friends with entire world. He wouldn’t have had much fun, or wouldn’t have got very far in the life that he had chosen for himself if it were any other way. It was an inherent part of his personality that he wouldn’t be able to change. Not immediately. Not any time soon.

“Hugs aren’t always harmless, no,” he said. They were hugging now, and the way his hand rubbed idle and comforting circles against Pi’s back was not the kind of thing he would do with just anyone. The way he pressed his lips against her hair affectionately. The way he now leaned back, fingers tipping beneath Pi’s chin like he had imagined earlier. Tilting her head up so that she could look at him. He was smiling, just a little bit. “But I can promise you that this hug? This one right here is one meant only for you. You,” he repeated, before leaning down to brush his lips against hers.

[Pi dArtois]

Velveteen: [t] Why did you attack Sada Abe?

Pi Artois: [Text] He tasted bad

Velveteen: [t] Kinda your own fault isn't it. You attacked a Tytonidae thrall Pi.

PiArtois: [Text] Should I make out my last will and testament?

Velveteen: [t] That it was intentional maybe you should.

PiArtois: [Text]I've always wanted to try a few fights to the death. Give me a heads up and maybe we can meet in the realm. Or you know, you could do the dog pile. But I've always wanted to go one on one with someone, no holds barred... if anyone is keen on your end.

PiArtois: [Text] Will is all sorted. XD

[Pi dArtois]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--
* Skylar: waves

"Hey guys. What ya up to?"

* ‹Pi dArtois› smiles (a little wanly, but it's a game smile and she's trying). She doesn't wave back but she nods. Nodding is good

"Wondering if we need to send Elliot out to get a tree to dress this place up..." She answered

It's a little.. dark and gloomy I think (just a reminder the place is an abandoned underground railway station >.>

Skylar:"What? We asked for a tree ages ago." I eye Ellie. "Oh hey Pi... You mind if I give him a hug? I haven't seen him in a while. you can have one too if you want?"

* ‹Elliot d’Artois› only just realises how close Christmas is. And, how little he's done. In fact, he's done nothing at all. No presents, no trees - none that he'd retrieved himself, anyway. No parties. He wonders whether it's something he should feel guilty about. And he decides that, yes. Why not? Pile the guilt into a big stinking mess, because it's always going to be there anyway. He narrows his eyes at Pi from his place on the big antique armchair he'd dragged into the place, sprawled, with his legs stretched out in front of him, arms resting on the arms of the chair. "Woman, you bought yourself a crypt. I'd almost expect you think it's normal for it to be dark and gloomy," he says with a grin.

‹Pi dArtois› Pi stares at the woman and shrugs, turning away and pretending to arrange things on the crafting table. Shuffling them about. It wasn't really an answer, but better for all concerned if this night wasn't begun with Pi losing her **** over a hug she was meant to be okay with. Instead she her shrug as her back was turned had to be the answer.

* ‹Elliot d’Artois› rolls his eyes at Skylar. "I'm pretty sure I answered that you could have one. You're all grown people."

* Skylar: gives Ellie a big hug and then goes and hugs Pi from behind.

"Happy Christmas guys. I know I'm a bit early but who cares."

‹Pi dArtois› Pi pats the hand Skylar had wrapped around her and finally turned around, a rather bemused smile on her face. It wasn't acceptance with it was something less rigid than the others she'd formally thrown at the woman prior. "I haven't.. shopped at all this year..." Pi repled, then looked at Elliot, her eyebrow arched. "And he didn't get the tree yet."

* ‹Elliot d’Artois› grins as he returns the hug, and then released Skylar to the world. "It's not early, not really. Christmas indicates a season, rather than just one day."

* Elliot dArtois raises his hands in defence. "Whoa whoa, when did the tree become entirely my responsibility?!"

‹Pi dArtois› Pi looks at Skylar for support. "I'm sure we allocated you that job weeks ago." Her smirk was telling as she pushed Elliot off the Christmas cliff

* Skylar: nods

"Yep. Totally did."

* ‹Elliot d’Artois› launches himself up and out of the chair. "Fine then. You want a tree? I'll go get you a damned tree," he says. If they're not careful, he's going to end up out in the wilderness tearing some young sapling out of the ground. There aren't going to be any other trees left at this time of the year. And besides which, he doesn't want to buy into the whole commercialism of the season. It's such a farce. He reaches for the jacket draped over the back of the chair and shoves his arms through it.

‹Pi dArtois› "That's the spirit." Pi says under her breath, her expression indulgent as she watched him yank his coat on. She was tempted to go over and help him, holding the jacket still so he could temper tantrum his way out the door in a nice little fit of temper. Instead she stepped forward, and quickly pecked him on the cheek, swiftly dodging a lanky flung arm. "We can come with you Grumpy."

Pi didn't care about the tree. Hell she hadn't even bought any presents, not even for Elliot. She had the ring on they'd bought together, and that seemed like a big enough gift for the both of them. (the truth was she'd just let Christmas slip up on her and she hadn't remembered to get .... anyone anything.)

Skylar: “Good luck finding a tree 2 days before Christmas. Do we even have anything to hang on it?” I ask as I look about the room. The place was still confusing to me with so many portals going here there and everywhere.

* ‹Elliot d’Artois› pauses in his mini tantrum - and it's not really a tantrum, just a mini frustration. He pauses lone enough to pressed a return kiss to her temple. Christmas. It's the time of year for all their anniversaries. Remembering this softens him just a little. He turns to Skylar as she asks her question, and then shakes his head. "I didn't buy anything. I sometimes wish we could go back to the dark ages, when people weren't accused of having no Christmas Spirit because they refused to spend an arm and a leg on decorations and ****," he says.

* Elliot dArtois shrugs, the coat now snug around his shoulders. "Plenty of trees out where they grow," he admits, then narrowing his eyes between all the portals, wondering which one would get him closer to the wilderness.

‹Pi dArtois› "Hunting Ground." Pi says with a wide grin, envisioning the ridiculous tree they would find if they could find any her hand lifting to the far side of the depot, where the railway tracks converged. "I think you can find u s something out there... and we will think of decorations... after." She was walking as she was talking, swinging a rather big bucket out from behind the crafting table and handing that, and a hand saw to Elliot to complete his ensembl. "To cut the tree... and can you fill that with dirt so we have a stand for it please?" She asked, trying to hold a straight face. He was a very attractive grumpy man, and his reticence only made her want a tree more. Contrary woman that she was. She turns to Skylar. "While he is gone maybe we can find something we can put on it?" .

Skylar: “It’s dangerous out there Ellie. I’m not sure that’s the best plan. Last time I was out there… erm… well… A leg went missing. Not mine.” I add quickly not wanting him to worry. “But still that was an experience I’d rather not repeat thank you very much. Unless you can grow limbs back too. Can you?” I genuinely want to know and my curiosity can clearly be heard in my tone. “Sure. I bet we could come up with something.” I shrug. I’m not a sculptor or anything but give me a piece of paper or a lump of metal and I could pretty much work miracles.

* ‹Elliot d’Artois› points to Pi. "Hunting Grounds. No Fae there to rip off my limbs. But hey! Maybe if there were, it would give credence to 'giving an arm and a leg' for something, right?" he says with a smirk, taking the bucket and the handsaw. Though, he probably won't use the handsaw. He wanders over to the portal to the Hunting Grounds, leaving with nothing but what he was given - and a tome of course. "See you girls soon."

* Skylar: giggles

[Lancaster]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--


‹Pi dArtois› smiles

"That was fun... I have an idea. Follow me. And then I can let you loose on the crafting table and you can see what you can come up with." Pi walks to the elevator and waits for Skylar. She intends to go up, the second floor where the second floor portals are. Not many people head up to the maintenance floor. Not people know they can, or what's there. More portals, but these are different, these lead to houses, abodes, crypts and cabins. Some hers, some Elliots, one of them Reilly's... tonight she want to take Skylar to the Cabin, Pine Acres, close to where Elliot will be hunting for a tree and the place they keep all of their hydros. They may not have decorations, but they have flowers, lots and lots and lots of flowers.

Skylar: “Aw nuts.” I say as I start to follow Pi. “We should have told him to gather pine cones too if he could find them. Natures natural ornaments. And they smell great too. Don’t you think? You know I think I tried to eat one as a kid.” I purse my lips and think about that for a moment. “Hmm… Probably wasn’t a success. I don’t really remember though. Moved onto shiny stuff after that. I’m a bit of magpie.” I tell her for no other reason than the thought was in my mind. “Oh. Which reminds me. Congrats. When did you guys get married?” I nod to the ring on her hand, smiling as I do.

‹Elliot d’Artois› The hunting grounds were dark. The sound washed over Elliot as soon as he arrived - it had been a while since he'd been out here. He glanced over his shoulder, and all around. There was no one, and nothing around. He begins to traipse through the snow, boots crunching in the freshly fallen stuff. Searching, until he finds the perfect tree. One that's about the same height as he is, perhaps a little taller. A young tree, by anyone's standards. Caring nothing for his clothes, he gets down on his hands and knees. He digs away the snow, and instead of using the saw to chop the wood, he bashes the handle into the hard earth.

‹Pi dArtois› Pi stares at the woman and blinks. Where to start, what to say. Skylar was trying and it can’t possibly be her fault that Pi was absolutely rubbish at small talk. But she’d try, because Elliot told her (soOoooo many people told her) that she needed to open up more. She wasn’t good at it, but as any work in progress, practice was the key. “We didn’t have many trees where I grew up..” she answered, remembering the rather small and shabby apartments she’d lived in. “But yes, I do like their smell… it’s… clean. Nice.” Closing her fist she rubs a finger along the underside of the ring, her pad running along the etchings. “Not long ago.” She answered. It was easier to say that than to explain they weren’t really married, not in the sense people usually expected. Not even in the vampire ritual sense.

She leads Skylar into the Cabin, the place bare of furniture, nothing but hydros in the room they’d entered. Row upon row of growing flowers, some hydros containing the same flower, some different. Muskroots, Bishops Weeds, Scarlets an a host of others. Bending she plucks from the rows there, handing bunches to Skylar as she moves along the rows. “Why don’t you text him, tell him to bring some? He wasn’t carrying anything on him, but maybe he has his phone in his pocket.”

(You gave items to Skylar.)

Skylar: “Aw nuts.” I say as I start to follow Pi. “We should have told him to gather pine cones too if he could find them. Natures natural ornaments. And they smell great too. Don’t you think? You know I think I tried to eat one as a kid.” I purse my lips and think about that for a moment. “Hmm… Probably wasn’t a success. I don’t really remember though. Moved onto shiny stuff after that. I’m a bit of magpie.” I tell her for no other reason than the thought was in my mind. “Oh. Which reminds me. Congrats. When did you guys get married?” I nod to the ring on her hand.

“Holy ****. What is this place?” I start wondering if it could be kitted out with furniture, if so it would be a great place to bring Ric if she could get Pi and Ellie to agree to it. “And can do…” I take my phone out of my pocket and start typing a quick text to Ellie with our request. “So do I call you mum now? Not that I actually call Ellie dad. I call him Papa Bear. So I guess that makes you Mama Bear. Right?”

* ‹Elliot d’Artois› is too busy digging into the ground, grunting and swearing at the hard earth to hear his phone; he'll check it later. In the end, the earth gives way - he is a vampire, with superior strength. He loosens the dirt until the tree begins to wiggle - until, in the end, he is able to wrench the entire thing out of the ground, roots and all. He does so with a shout of success.

‹Pi dArtois› “Good God.” Pi mutters, standing from the end hyrdo and hands Skylar the last bunch of flowers with an arched brow. “I’m … good Lord. Mama Bear.” Instead of answering she just shakes her head, giving the woman a bemused smile as she walked back the way they’d come. Pi was only thirty four. It’s not like she had been ready to have her own family, so having someone as old (comparably speaking) as Skylar call her Mama Bear was either ironic or amusing. Then she thought back to that night in the casino and the thought she’d had about feeling ancient compared to the peppy woman, any maybe age wasn’t all years you’d lived, but the way in which you’d lived those years. Pi rather thought Skylar’s life had a bit more youthful promise in it. Pi’s hadn’t had much promise at all, youthful or otherwise. Heading back to the elevator she waited there, watching Skylar walk, her arm full of flowers and she smiled. “This is the Cabin, out in Pine Acres. I’ve had it for years, not sure what to do with it.” She spoke, looking at the place Wolfgang had bought for her. “So we grow things here. And that’s about it. It’s nice out here though, private… but it never gets used.”

Skylar:I laugh as she takes in her new nickname. Probably a good thing she doesn’t know about the old one. We probably still had a ways to go but I was pretty sure she’d realise I wasn’t any kind of threat to her after a while. “You should rent it out or something. This place is lovely. My kinda, sorta, maybe boyfriend would like this place. He’s really into hunting and stuff. He’s the one that had his leg ripped off. He was super cool about it too. Like really cavalier. It was impressive.” I’m not really sure why I’m telling her about Ric but I figure she’s Ellie’s wife, so he’d probably tell her anyway. Not that I could actually claim Ric publicly as my boyfriend, he was still getting used to the term friend.

[Skylar]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

‹Elliot d’Artois› The tree flops at Elliot's feet as he brushes his hands over his jeans to try to clean them of dirt. Only then does he hear the chime of his phone, reminding him he has a message. He checked the phone, and rolled his eyes. Alright. Pine cones. He half filled the bucket with dirt, before wandering around the dim darkness in search of pine cones, piling them in on top of the dirt.

‹Pi dArtois› “Feel free to use it if you’d like, there are other rooms, towards the back that don’t have hydros. I’ll give you a couple keys so he can get in.” Pi offered, pressing the button on the elevator to get them back to the main floor. Elliot wasn’t back yet when they arrived into the Den, the place echoed as the elevator door slid open, spewing them into the open space. “Okay, so we have flowers, we have pine cones. What in hell are we going to do about lights?” She asked, looking around the space.

Skylar: “Erm… lights?” I ask as I clear a space on the crafting table for Pi to put the flower on. “**** knows. I guess if you have a couple of desk lamps somewhere we could place them on the floor and make uplighters out of them. Show the tree off rather than fill it with lights.” I shrug. I’m artsy but no electrician. “And I’d love to borrow the cabin. Valentine’s weekend would be cool if that works for you? Has Ellie mentioned anything to you about the guy I’m kinda, maybe seeing?” I ask forgetting that she might have already put two and two together and figured out that it was the guy I asked Ellie to buy me at auction.

‹Pi dArtois› “Any time you like… but there’s .. not bed.” Pi offered, getting a bit uncomfortable at the idea of Valentines Day and the images that usually come from that and what people do. With a scrunching of her nose Pi shut down those images, moving away from what she knew would continue to be an awkward mental image. “But, anyway, yes, you can use the cabin, any time you like.” Staring at the tree she nods at the idea of lamps, thinking there were a couple of bed side tables in the Crypt and maybe up on the fourth floor in her and Elliot’s private apartment. Plenty of light really.. better than nothing. “No he hasn’t mentioned it.” Pi answered, although, maybe she had and being who she was, she’d heard Skylar’s name and had immediately switched off.

Skylar: “Cool. Thanks. And the bed thing won’t be an issue. Though I’m sure I could get one delivered or something. I can’t even get the guy to hug me yet. He’s… well… odd. Yep that pretty much sums him up. He only admitted we were friends for the first time yesterday and I’ve known him almost as long as I’ve been a vampire.” I start to get this wistful tone to my voice as I talk about Ric but I don’t really notice it myself. “Ellie bought him for me at the… Well right around the time you and I met.” I leave it at that as I’m sure she’ll remember that incident clearly enough.

‹Elliot d’Artois› With bucket and handsaw precariously held in one hand, and tree clutched tightly in the other (with the tome held between two fingers) Elliot chants the phrase that'll take him back to the Den. When he lands, it's with a cloud of pine needles and snow; he's got dirt all over him, from digging in the dirt. As he approaches the two women, he leaves a trail of soil behind him, dropping clods of it from the roots of the tree.

‹Pi dArtois› “Oh yes, I remember.” Pi answered, remembering her rather… unsightly behaviour that night. Any apology she might have uttered was stalled by the arrival of the tree. And the man hauling it. Pi tilts her head to the side, staring at the rather dishevelled Elliot with his tree and his bucket. And then she laughs. It comes from somewhere low in her belly and gurgles through her body to spill out of her mouth. He looks far from disgruntled now. He epitomizes an Australian outback man (in the snow) tree and bucket in tow, along with dirt and other unsightly-ness all over him. Pulling out her phone (cause who wouldn’t at a time like this) she used her thumb to activate the camera on it and snaps a photograph of him. And then snaps another, because it was just that good, and maybe, exactly the right sort of memory to keep for this Christmas. Finally taking a good look at the tree her eyebrows lift. It was by no means the Charlie Brown one she’d thought he’d get. This thing was a monster, fully six foot (and then some) “That… Elliot, is one impressive tree y ou have there. Did you get the pine cones?”

Skylar: “Man Ellie. When you go do something you don’t do it half-arsed do ya?” I go to inspect the tree but it’s not till I’m standing next to it that realise just how big the thing is. I give a low whistle to show how impressed I am. “So… Did you get my text? I know how electronically challenged you are. You might have noticed the vibrating, bleeping thing though… right? Unless you’re the sort to leave your brick at home.” I use the word he used earlier in his emails. True, he’d been describing an old phone but then he’d said he was pretty much technologically challenged, so a phone in his hands was probably about as useful as a brick would be.

‹Elliot d’Artois› "I got your text," he says, and holds up the bucket, half full with pine cones. He keeps hold of the tree but passes over the bucket and the hand saw. From his pocket he pulls out his phone - which, even though he had tried to keep it clean, is also covered in dirt and is wet from melted snow. He doesn't really treat his phone with all the respect it might deserve. He drops it into the bucket with the pine cones. "Where do you want this thing?" he asks, shaking the branches of the pine tree.

‹Pi dArtois› Pi takes the bucket with a sassy grin at the man who handed it to her, hauling it to the crafting table and empties it of the pine cones, then she scoops out half of the dirt, plonks the bucket onto the floor and sweeps her hand in the direction of the half full bucket. “In here. Hopefully, it will keep it upright and we will pack the rest of the dirt around it… well, that’s the theory anyway.” Shifting out of the way she makes room for Sky, just in case it takes three of them to make this feat of engineering to work. The bucket hardly seems big enough to keep the tree upright (and she envisions the thing falling over, as top heavy as it is) but it is the only plan she has.