undergrounds | bday + catch-all for january!

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bday + catch-all for january!

JAN 08/OPEN

Arthur isn't the kind of person who makes a point of celebrating their own birthday. At 31 it's difficult to get too excited unless you're looking for an excuse to party, which Arthur most definitely is not. He treats himself to one of those expensive breakfast sandwiches and a gourmet coffee before he goes about business as usual for the rest of the day, though he has to hit pause on his work at Hillingdon a few times throughout the day as he accepts the routine phone calls from close friends and family congratulating him on making it another year, despite the fact that most of them don't even know what a high-risk life he leads.

In the evening he treats himself a little more, stopping into a few bars on the way home to buy himself a drink and check in with some friends and contacts alike, though he avoids any business-related discussion as he gets progressively intoxicated.

JANUARY/OPEN

The rest of the month finds Arthur doing a fair amount of recon on the state of Islington. He spends a fair amount of time in bars populated primarily by vampires, or by the kind of people who know what's happening in the Nest. He'd like to know how the election is going to go before it happens, but mostly he wants to know how each of the candidates could change the landscape in London. He's much more open to doing small jobs in exchange for information but he plays his cards close to the chest as always. If it's relevant he'll share with his fellow Hillingdon clanmates but for the time being he sees no need for action on their part.

Otherwise it's business as usual. His day job is slow this time of year, but it'll pick up soon, so he's using this time to stay on top of the goings-on in the Underground.

[This post also serves as an open post for Arthur for the month of January! If you have anything you want to do with him just hit me up and I can write up a starter! Otherwise you can use anything above to get something going!]

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It was Arthur's birthday. Nancy knew this, and had planned for it. A fine tie clip came into her possession, and she'd wrapped it in a small box and insisted she meet him for a drink.

With the box set out in front of her, Nancy sat at the bar waiting for the man of the hour, a gin martini in one hand. It would be nice to see Arthur again, catch-up a bit. Prove to him that she was still alive and healthy with her vampire boyfriend.

When Arthur arrives, she's quick to stand, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek and a hug. "Happy birthday, Arthur!"

Arthur told Nancy multiple times she didn't have to do anything special, but he's happy to catch up with her nonetheless. He smiles when he sees her, wrapping his arms loosely around her when she hugs him.

"Thank you," he says graciously, smiling widely at her as he sits down. "I see you got started already," he adds after a moment, gesturing to the martini and looking around for someone who can take his drink order.

It's always good to see Arthur. He was handsome and friendly, and always made her feel safe. "Can you blame me?" She asks with a wry grin. "The martinis here are amazing. D'you want one?" She glances over her shoulder at the bartender.

"How've you been, love?"

"Couldn't hurt," he says, gesturing to Nancy's drink once they have the bartender's attention and asking for two in case Nancy wants another one.

"The holidays are always quiet for me," he replies easily, "but I like it that way." His casual tone implies that he really does, like he feels refreshed by the quiet start to the winter. "What about you?"

Arthur is Nancy's hero already.

"Good, I'm glad you had a good holiday, then." She settles back into her stool. "I did, as well. Busy- it was my first year having to do two Christmases, on top of Hannukah." At least Christmas and Hannukah were easy to wrap together. Fagin raised those in his employ with Jewish holidays, but he'd added Christmas for the others, that had come in late, to keep their traditions as well. The result was a lot of holiday and a lot of traditions.

"But it was nice." She smiles and takes a drink, looking at Arthur over the top of her glass.

"Good," Arthur says, smiling as he picks up the martini that arrives right then and taking a sip. He makes a pleased sound at the taste.

"Everything good with you and Cooper?"

That's his name right? Arthur doesn't sound judgemental at a when he says it, which is a feat since he's still of the mind that Nancy should at least carry some stakes around with her. Just in case.

She knows he doesn't like Cooper. It's a fact: no one likes Cooper except maybe Caroline. And she was quite sure they were all missing out, because Cooper was a good person who liked cuddling and had autographed Elvis albums and put up with her cat.

"They're really great," she says, a twinkle in her green eyes. "We're living together now, actually. He's been nothing short of amazing, especially with everything that happened to Midnight." The way she speaks about him, it's clear how much she cares for him.

"I love him a lot."

"Mm," Arthur says through a sip of his martini. He's not very good at faking happy, that's for sure, but anyone who's his friend by now probably thinks that's a good trait. They can trust he's never going to be fake. In cases like this he thinks of it more of a failing.

"Where do you two live?" he asks casually, trying to figure out whose territory they ended up in. Islington is the most obvious choice but Arthur would like to know for sure.

"We're in his brilliant flat," she tells him. "It's amazing, unlike any place I've ever been before. It's in [can't remember]." So, Islington territory. "He's a Marquess under Jean-Claude." So he has power in the nest and has been using it to keep her safe.

"I wasn't planning on moving in with him," she explains. "But by the time I got pardoned it seemed right. He asked me to stay and it's been far too long since I've lived with someone." Before Cooper, she and Bill had had their place in Bethnal Green. She smiles, because she's happy for once in her life. She can't complain.

"What have you been up to? I heard you all were involved with removing Harris." You all meaning Hillingdon.

Arthur nods in understanding; at least if he really does love her and won't hurt her that's an extra layer of protection on top of how capable she already is. He always felt more secure living with his companions while he was traveling. He's more paranoid now that he's alone.

"A little, yeah," he says, obviously not going to go into detail. "I'm just glad it's over, now. Islington seems more stable than I thought it'd be too."

Nancy's living situation had been tumultuous since she'd first gotten together with her ex-boyfriend, bouncing from living with Fagin and the boys, to living with him, to living on her own in their apartment. From there, it was Enfield, and now with Cooper, with Eames' flat let out to her for work. It was nice to finally feel like she could hang her hat somewhere.

But part of her still wonders how long that will be for.

"That's because they've got some good people in charge, now." Nancy wasn't Jean-Claude's number one fan. He was good to look at, and they had lived similar lives. But he was still Kenzi's sire, and the reality of what had happened to her best friend still stung.

Because she was the reason it had happened in the first place.

"Y'know, Cooper actually used to help run a nest in America," she explains knowingly. "He's got a good head on his shoulders." Just a nasty temper.

Arthur had more than enough experiences with nests in the States to know that they weren't all run very well, so he hums and nods like he's agreeing, but it doesn't say much to him.

"I suspect he's happy Harris is gone just like the rest of us," he say, clearly more on his mind. He doesn't think Cooper was happy under Harris, especially if he is what Nancy says he is, but he is wary of the power structure in Islington and how it has changed very rapidly. Maybe Cooper has more than he's ready for, or maybe he wanted more and didn't get it. Regardless, as stable as things are, there are still aspects that are in flux and Arthur's worried about it all.

"He is," she says without hesitation. Harris had never been a favorite of Cooper, though he'd played nice in favor of being in a good position once the backlash started. And here he was.

"He likes Jean-Claude well enough." Nancy makes a face. Her issues with him were personal, though he'd worked hard to try to establish something between the two of them akin to friendship. If anything, she wasn't rude to him, and understood him just a bit better.

"And I gather you don't?" Arthur says, tone entirely innocent and curious. He hasn't heard a negative word about Jean-Claude yet, except that he's perhaps a bit forward.

"D'you remember Kenzi?" She asks him. "He's her sire." Her issues with Jean-Claude were completely personal.

Arthur's jaw tightens at that, but he distracts himself with his drink. After a moment he raises an eyebrow at Nancy as he asks, "what happened?"

"She tried to find out who cursed me last year, and they didn't like it. She was attacked, and Jean-Claude found her in time and turned her. He brought her to my apartment." She'd ruined her couch that night.

"Apparently she wanted me to be with her." Or, and she never asked, if it was because Kenzi assumed Nancy would be a willing victim, to complete the turn. She scratches absentmindedly at her neck.

"As far as I'm concerned, he killed my best friend."

Arthur falls into silence for a moment, considering his drink. "I'm sorry," he finally says. It's hard to tell from Nancy's story whether that's what her friend wanted or not, and to some degree he can't fault vampires for failing to see what a curse their own existence is. They think it's better than death, and Arthur knows that's not universally true.

While Nancy has no problems with vampires, she'd long ago decided she didn't want to be turned, necessarily. Not at this point in her life.

"Thank you," she says with a nod. It had bothered her endlessly, still did, to have been the one Kenzi fed off of. She would have let her, but she would have liked the choice. "He's been nothing but kind to me since, however." He tried really hard. And she could appreciate that.

"Well, it remains to be seen, but he seems to be a step in the right direction for the Nest," Arthur says lightly, taking another sip of his drink. It's a bit of an obvious statement, given what came before him.

"I hope so," she says. Under Raymond, things had been significantly harder on her. It was hard to sell blood when vampires could get it for free, now. Were encouraged to, actually.

"So I got you a gift. It's probably something you already have, but..." she holds out the small box.

"Oh, you didn't have to," he says, glancing from the box to Nancy with a moment's hesitation before he takes it from her hand. He's charmed but so bad at accepting gifts, and he holds the box in front of him, trying to turn his frown into a smile before he starts opening it.

"No," Nancy agrees easily, "but I wanted to. Besides, what's a birthday without a gift? It was that, or make you dance with me." She still recalled trying to get him to dance last year.

He laughs, because that's definitely not going to happen. So he acquiesces and finishes opening the gift, mindful not to make a mess.

The gift is a tie clip- nothing special, gold with pearl inlay. When the gift is opened, she smiles sheepishly. "If you don't like it, you don't have to lie."

bday + catch-all for january!

January 8th, a bar somewhere

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