Sang walked with Damien glancing over at him, as they went. She couldn’t believe she’d seen him making a vampire. As intimate as it had been when he’d taken blood from her, that’s how impersonal this…embrace?..kiss?.. she didn’t even know what to call it.. turning? had been. She didn’t blame him for doing it in fact it was much better than what she’d wanted to do to the girl. One thing this incident made her acutely aware of was that they weren’t invulnerable and that she felt protective of him already. Very protective. She’d wanted to pull the stake out herself and the next time..She shook her head, there wouldn’t *be* a next time. She had every intention of making sure of that, if she had to sit the other girl still staked in the sun herself. Her eyes narrowed, even while she shook her head. *Bitch.* She looked over at Damien, again. She didn’t understand how she could feel so at ease with him, it was like she’d finally come home. She wouldn’t tell him that though..not yet. It was too soon, she couldn’t even believe it herself. When she spoke it was softly, “Damien…I want to taste you.”
When Chloë, Viktor and Emily met Seth and heard what he had to say. Chloë growled, “Whore. I want to see the little bitch’s face. Pull that stake out and do it *again*.” Chloë’s eyes went dark, she looked at Seth as he looked her over, “Thanks. You’re not lookin’ so bad yourself, babe.” Chloe chewed on her bottom lip her fang piercing it, she drew it into her mouth sucking the blood from it.
Simone screamed in her head as the sarcophagi closed tears flowed from her eyes. She was locked in and one of them. She *was* starving. Her body was dying she could feel it. Everything slowing and stopping. She could feel the impurities being forced out, smell it. She could feel the stake, and the agony as Glen had forced it through her body. She wasn’t sure which was more painful, the death of the body or the stake. Her mind was racing and she tried to slow it to make sense of the cacophony of thoughts racing through it. She knew there was no escaping this. She knew what it was to be caged for days on end. She knew she’d eventually lose track of time. Days would creep by with nothing to fill them but her thoughts. She would slowly lose her sanity. She didn’t understand, unless the things that attacked her family weren’t vampire, or weren’t like these vampires. She didn’t know. She could only hope that she’d be released soon.
Heather and Kendra made their way to the dungeon only to find Aubrey and Siobhan already there listening to the men speak. The girls dispersed when the guys did. Siobhan going with Genja and Aubrey going to make sure all the cages were locked down. Kendra and Heather went back to their apartments.
Mia who was just as bored as Jace smiled when he spoke, “No shit, and I don’t know about you but I for one am tired of babysitting. Think maybe we could find something interesting to do?”
Summer stood in the kitchen, a piece of toast on the counter in front of her, a steaming cup of coffee held in both hands as she leaned back against the counter. She woke alone wondering if she had actually dreamed the whole thing. She whispered, “Lucifer”. She wondered if she’d finally gone over the edge. She knew she’d been attracted to him almost as soon as she’d seen him back in Darkness Falls. She’d fallen for him faster. A Fallen.. No the Fallen.
It had to be a dream. It couldn’t be real. Daniel’s appearance out of nowhere, Sebastian sprouting wings and stopping time…but not time the entire universe? She was a small town girl from a small town who barely attracted the attention of the mortal men she knew. Now she was supposed to believe she’d managed to attract not only a fallen angel but…she said it out loud just to hear it, “Lucifer.” None of it made any sense to her. It had to have been a dream. It couldn’t be real, could it?
She finished the coffee, threw the toast away. If that was a dream then calling out of work must have been as well. But she knew she was off work. She had to be losing her mind. If it had been a dream, where had that stuff come from? The research she’d been doing. No, that was mainly into Voodoo and the practices around here for things she’d need to stock in a store. She padded into the living room and stopped dead when she saw it, sitting on the table, a single enormous black feather sitting on her coffee table, too big to be from any bird.
She blinked. It was real. She’d really seen it and he really was..”Lucifer”, she whispered aloud again. The implications struck her hard and fast. The reality even faster. This wasn’t some ordinary random guy she’d gotten involved with this was much more. And what had they said. He’d marked her soul. He could find her anywhere. She didn’t mind that so much.. Because she did love Sebastian. She knew that from the very beginning. But “Lucifer”, she said the name aloud again. She picked up her phone and called Genja.
Aubrey and Samuel decided it was a good time to get out of Dodge and go visit his grandmother in Louisiana. It would give the locals time to get over the shock and they could go before they started their bitching. They also realized that if they went now, Silver and Conrad could take care of the club while they were gone and Silver could take care of the ranch as well as supervise Tommy and his friends while they took care of Taryn’s ranch. David resisted but finally gave in realizing he would never be able to convince Taryn that an old woman could be anywhere near as crazy and evil as he swore his grandmother was and she was just going to have to see it for herself. So, when Tuesday morning rolled around, Samuel, Aubrey, David and Taryn hit the road and headed South for the week with plans to meet Genja and Kendra in New Orleans a few days later, leaving the locals to focus on the upcoming show in D.C. instead of who was married to who or how long they thought it would last.
Back in Darkness Falls, Genja tied up some loose ends and contracted a short term lease for a place in the Quarter after David and Taryn drove into town, checked out the property for him and gave him the okay. He wanted Taryn’s opinion because he felt her background and upbringing made her the most qualified to determine whether or not the townhouse was suitable for someone of his standing. He left Constantine and Kat in charge of his properties and informed his business contacts of who’d they’d be dealing with in his absence. Wednesday, Genja and Kendra met Edward and Eden for lunch where Edward informed them of his and Eden’s plans to follow them south. They fell to talking about other friends of theirs who would benefit from relocating and were unanimous in deciding that such a relocation was exactly what Aaron and Glen needed. The four of them met up with the latter two at the Confessional that night. Glen and Aaron didn’t need convincing. Almost as soon as the idea was presented to them, they recognized the potential, especially for Aaron, and agreed to go. Aaron had sold his grandmother’s house when his sister’s body had been discovered and moved into the loft Glen was renting. The only thing tying them down was Glen’s job and lease, both of which Glen was more than willing to walk away from. Thursday morning, that’s exactly what he did. Meanwhile, Eden and Edward had already left and were in New Orleans in a hotel and house hunting by day.
When Friday came, Genja, Kendra, Glen and Aaron were unpacking in Genja and Kendra’s rented French Quarter townhouse and Glen hit the streets looking for work while Aaron scoured the classifieds for a place of their own. David and Taryn were on their way back to Solitude so David could make the D.C. booking while Samuel and Aubrey stayed behind to spend more time with their grandmother.
Sunday afternoon, Genja, Kendra, Aaron and Glen met up with Aubrey and Samuel in a local bar for lunch where they were discussing the potential jobs Glen had to choose from when a special report flashed on the bar’s TV screen reporting the body of a dead man who’d been found in an alley with his heart ripped out. Meanwhile in D.C., Misanthropy were packing up to go back home after their show the night before.
The club was closed on Monday night. Aubrey and Samuel spend the rest of their day setting up for the Party. Once everyone was there and having fun, they dropped their bomb. Like the aftermath of any bomb dropping, the initial silence was deafening. Then the noise commenced, with Aiden making the being the first to recover, “What the fuck did you just say?” Aubrey looked over at Aiden, “He said we got married today.” She held up her hand, showing off the ring. Ava smiled at Aiden, “Guess we couldn’t stop it.” Taryn flew out of her seat and hugged Samuel tightly. Once the questions were out of the way and everyone was satisfied they were *really* married the party went on well in to the morning hours.
<Genja answers after a couple of rings, his voice low> Just the man I wanted to talk to. What’s this shit I’m hearing from Aiden about you being all but pussy whipped?
<Genja arches a brow, smiles> Oh, he *is* pussy whipped assuming I’m talking to the pussy that whipped him.
<Genja laughs, nods> At least you have a healthy awareness of your specific areas of talent. <looks over at Kendra> Aubrey, right? What can I do for you?
<Samuel walks into the club with a cigarette in his hand, stops at the bar and takes off his duster, lays it across the bar>
<inside the club Aubrey sits at a table with Silver, music plays but the lights are up and as is the curtain, Cheri and Bootsie stand on the stage talking to each other and Aubrey whispers to Silver> I’m gonna have her voice box removed, if he hire her.
<Samuel takes a long drag off his cigarette, looking over at the girls on the stage, walks over to Silver and Aubrey, nods> I do what I can to make the girls happy, darlin’.
Monday found Aubrey sitting in Illusions, Silver had called with a message from Bree that there were interviews for dancers at the club. She sat at a table, kicked back, feet propped on the extra chair a drink sweating in front of her. She’d been through six interviews already and was beginning to think this was little more than a waste of time. She woke up this morning to Silver’s call, after spending some quality time waking up and with Samuel she’d told him about the interviews. He’d be joining her later after she found the contenders. So far she hadn’t seen any. Silver sat at the bar watching, making sure Aubrey knew what she was doing. Conrad was around somewhere filling out the order forms for more alcohol and bar ware.
<the boys look over when they walk over, Samuel with his arm around Aubrey as seems to be the habit now>
<Loch smiles> I’ll tell Tony. And we don’t have to move when he closes. I just have to lock up when we’re done.
<Loch looks over at Taryn, imagines her the way Van described, smiles and shakes his head, gets up and heads to the bar>
Archives Select Month November 2012 (8) October 2012 (41) September 2012 (60) August 2012 (40) July 2012 (20) June 2012 (47) May 2012 (22) April 2012 (119)
To many, the island nation, now Kingdom of Ryalta likely seems like an idyllic paradise. But those who live in a place where mercenary ideals and pursuit of power have often been the very engine that fuels the machine, those with little power and even less influence often find themselves scrabbling for even the smallest foothold in their world. And into that world came Lyris. Youngest daughter of a hardened salvager and his hard-scrabble wife, Lyris spent the early years of her life living a life of graft and hunger, never quite knowing when the next meal would come or from where. As soon as she was old enough, she began to work with, though truer might be to say for, her parents, taking whatever work she could find, need and desperation breaking whatever will the girl might have had to think beyond the pain in her belly and the plight of parents and siblings. Mucking stall, collecting fallen grains at the flour mills, scrubbing floors at the worst of the inns and drink houses that the island had to offer became simply…the only way to survive.
It was at one of those inns, more of a brothel, really when chance, or circumstance came to her. Though what is given in one hand, is often taken in the other. She had been promised a few hammers to work as a serving girl, delivering drinks, saving the prostitutes from having to do such menial tasks. Such manual labour did not, after all, bring coin in to the madam who ran the lodging. Lyris found herself approached by one of the men frequenting the establishment, and mistaking her for one of the whores who made the place their place of business, offered the girl a few hammers for her time. And while the thought of it sickened her, hammers in hand rather than the promise of payment, which was not always fulfilled, won the day, and she accepted. It was not an ideal life, of course, but what life could be, in her situation? And so, a different life than she would have wished for herself began. And if she often found herself on the receiving end of hard words and harder blows? Well, it seemed a small, if painful, price to pay not to feel that bite of hunger in her belly, or see the same in the eyes of parents and sibling. And so, she plied her trade, saving whatever money she could, saving always half of the payment for herself, unbeknownst to her family and tucking it away in secret.
After a few years of work, and after trade had improved between the island and the rest of the western world, Lyris, determined as she was to escape the hopelessness and brutality, managed to pay passage for a ship to Four Corners, and departed the island, vowing the herself that she would never again step foot onto its soil. Arriving at the city, she quickly found one of the brothels and took up her trade, the only one she yet had. And then, fortune of another sort did find her, as one of the courtesans from the Academy, doing her rounds of the brothels where, now and again, some stock which might be useful could be recruited, happened upon the girl and invited her to train as an apprentice, following all of the usual contracts and customs. And so she did, taking a new name, Elixane, and plying her trade, learning every skill and manner of art she could, anything that would allow her to forget the girl she had been in the streets of Ryalta and in the back alleys of Four Corners and become the woman she wished to be. Her keen mind, honed over years of hard scrabble, her looks, her skilled voice and her unwavering ambition to excel saw her well established for the work. When it came time to complete her apprenticeship, she chose to remain at the Academy. It offered a much more stable promise of income than attempting to work solely for herself. And at the Academy she's remained, an established courtesan, though always she seeks ever to rise in her ambitions, to climb the ladder of success and influence. To power, always on her own terms.
The woman before you is tall, five feet and ten in her bare feet, all smooth limbs and carefully sculpted curves. Brilliantly blue eyes shine from a face of high cheekbones, arched brows, full lips; a nose dusted with freckles. Warm tanned skin, and rich dark hair were very nearly her only adornment. But her figure, her grace and poise, clothed in dresses of exquisite cut, and demure colour seemed more than enough adornment to be going on with.
Elixane is the epitome of an Academy-trained courtesan. Skilled in voice and harp, able to converse with wit and grace with a keen eye and a keener sense of humour. A talented dancer, she knows such varieties as are danced in most of the kingdoms of the western world. She is discerning in her clientele and is known to be both discrete and talented in all forms of the entertainments for which those in her profession are known. She adheres to a very strict policy of never allowing any attachments beyond those which are strictly outlined in her contracts. An established courtesan, she is one of the many who, as well as taking her own contracts, has been charged with seeing to the training of the Academy's apprentices, both male and female. As a tutor she is known to be a hard taskmaster demanding nothing short of perfection from her apprentices.
Strong Willed: (Ignore 2 points of mental stress earned during this round only OR +2 to resist an appropriate manipulation check where your strong will is of relevance)
Pro: Elixane's ambition will not allow her to accept failure and she is always seeking for ways to improve her station and power.
Con: Lack of etiquette and proper decorum have a tendency to bring out the acid in her tongue and worse.
Pro: Elixane excels at knowing just the right words to say and the proper..things to do to get what she wants.
Con: Always having just the right word? Leads to people never knowing when you're telling the truth, or being honest and when you're just trying to get something you want.
Con: Contracts and clients have been lost in her knee-jerk reaction to feeling caged or possessed, potentially undoing all of the hard work shes put in to winning influence and favour.
"I have such sights to show you. Soon, you will have answers to questions you have never even dared to ask."
A short clip by Ethic Cinema showing two street art events in the south of France. This clip is the first project from Ethic Cinema and was made as a proof of concept for most of the (Free/Libre) technologies that we currently use.
An animated short made by Project Morevna and based on the Pepper & Carrot comic by David Revoy. Pepper & Carrot is about "Pepper", a young witch and her cat, "Carrot". They live in a fun fantasy universe made of potions, magic and creatures.
The documentation “Wem gehört das Wasser” telecasted by the WDR discusses the handling and distribution of the water resources on earth. The documentation considers how the company Nestlé operates in different countries. Nestlé was chosen due to its global dimensions and is standing representative for many other big companies. In the selected countries, either the access of the population on drinking water is limited for example in Africa or there is a negative influence on the nature. In both cases it is also considered if the auctions are legal or against the law.