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#1 I ACCIDENTALLY A WHOLE BRIBE (FOR COOPER / early june)
Ghoul is not usually the type to take an interest in playing legislative games, but after this recent shitshow of an election, he's decided to shake things up. The entire Council is apparently corrupt or crazy or selfish or unpredictable in one way or another- and you know what? That's fine. If the Council members are so quick to take bribes, then he'll find a motherfucker to take a bribe.

That's where Cooper comes in. Not because Ghoul thinks he's the most corrupt, but because he's the only one he's ever met at all. Cooper seems pretty okay for a vampire, and Ghoul figures it's easier to start on familiar ground.

Which is how Cooper ends up with a determined looking Ghoul starting off their meeting with, "I wanna get a law changed."

#2 THE SLOWEST SUFFERING (FOR LILLIAN / early june)
The talk with Cooper had gone all right, but this wasn't where he expected the conversation to lead him. He'd assumed the bribery thing would be a one-and-done deal, but no. Now he has to write up some sort of bullshit formal proposal, and it feels like every word he manages to jot down sucks a little bit of the life force out of him.

It's awful. There are even books (fucking books!) spread out on the table in front of him, because he thought a quiet, cozy picnic area in a park would be a nice place to think.

It's not helping much, actually. After a while, he abandons the small notebook he'd been scribbling in and directs all of his attention to his phone screen. The shit he's scrolling through has nothing to do with his project, but hey. It's fine. He deserves a break.

#3 FULL MOON: DURING/AFTER (OPEN TO EAST END PACK / june 9th/10th)
And all too quickly, that time of the month has come around again. This time, he's prepared. He remains in the den for the duration, spending the night in the basement with some of the others. Keeping an eye on things with the newer members, being a nuisance towards older ones- the usual, really.

Once morning rolls around, he drags himself upstairs to recover. Face-down on a squishy sofa in one of the common areas is where he stays for most of the day, sore and half asleep.

#4 HILLINGDON HOUSE CALL (OPEN TO HILLINGDON & HILLINGDON ALLIES - feel free to reply as though he's made it inside the building and is wandering around, as well! / mid june)
Ghoul has a ghost to check in with.

He ends up finding Hillingdon House without much trouble. The place isn't as big as he'd imagined it to be (that's what he gets for looking at it from the front), and it seems pretty normal. Still, he ends up stuck outside of it, staring with a pensive look on his face. What the hell does he do with it? Knock on the door like some kind of jackass? Just waltz on in there? Where a bunch of hunters are?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Somehow, the way he looks at Arthur manages to come across as completely mulish before he even opens his mouth. "How am I gonna do that? There ain't a secretary there." Then he grins. "Want me to ask for you next time so you can get me all squared away? What's your name, chief?" As they've already established, Arthur's not a secretary. But it's stuck now.

He kinda looks like one.

Arthur blinks at him, changing nothing else about his expression.

"Yours first."

Fucking wonderful.

Ghoul suddenly seems to be suffering greatly, and he blows out a long, loud sigh. There's no way Arthur's going to accept the answer he's about to get. "You won't believe me."

Again, no change. Arthur's heard a lot of names.

"Try me," he says.

Ghoul shouldn't consider this a challenge, but he kind of does. "Fun Ghoul." He says it without even a trace of a smile. Zero bullshitting this time.

Arthur's eyebrows come together as he frowns in disappointment. Who named their child this.

"Seriously?"

"Yep." Okay, now he's smiling. He considers Arthur's change in expression a victory of some kind. "Your turn."

Arthur takes a deep breath as he decides whether or not to lie. He doesn't really like too many people knowing who he is, but he badgered this kid and it would just be a dick move.

"Arthur," he says.