undergrounds | (no subject)

#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

"What?" His face is all scrunched up in disbelief. This is his first time hearing this, for sure. "Wait, wait, wait." He grabs on to Roddy to keep him from going inside just yet, because this is kind of breaking fucking news.

Though it really shouldn't be. He knew Rorschach was a hunter. And he knows the opinion others tend to have of werewolves. Cursed, murderers, dangerous pests, so on and so forth. But, somehow, this is still surprising. He scoffs. "The fuck makes me more of a murderer than a hunter?" He'll have to tell Rorschach one damn thing-

-Or maybe not. Because he remembers he hasn't exactly told Rorschach that he was, in fact, the wolf he'd haunted way back when. "--Ugh. I don't think he knows about me."

Roddy shook his head. "I don't know, you'd have to ask him. I don't exactly agree with him."

Of course, asking him would be a bit difficult without revealing what Ghoul was, and Roddy would understand entirely if he didn't want to do that.

"I won't tell him if you don't want me to."

"Yeah... Yeah, maybe don't tell him." Ghoul will do it himself... Eventually. When the time is right, which is most likely not right now.

He'll figure it out, it'll turn out fine.

Ghoul seems to realize that he is, in fact, still clutching Roddy, so he finally loosens his grip and awkwardly smooths his sleeve back out. Good as new. "So y'dont believe in the big bad wolf thing, huh?"

Roddy was glad when Ghoul loosened his grip. He hadn't been too worried about it, but still...always nice to not have someone gripping your sleeve due to the upset and panic of learning what certain ghosts really thought of them. Roddy offered a small, momentary wisp of a smile when Ghoul smoothed out his shirt, a small acknowledgement to the gesture.

"I mean, I know what you have to do to activate your curse, but..." Roddy shrugged. "None of the wolves I met seemed big or bad."

Wrong answer. Ghoul makes a disgruntled face and swaps the sleeve-smoothing for something a little more aggressive. He punches Roddy somewhere near his shoulder- not nearly as hard as he does with, say, Party, but firm enough to get his attention and drive the point home. Which is, "Fuck you, we're plenty dangerous. Don't be gettin' all cocky just 'cause you met some of us nicer ones. You ain't seen us the other way."

He can be pretty hot and cold on the topic of werewolves. As demonstrated, he can rapidly swing between we're not monsters and we will literally eat you. Because as much as he desires respect and likes to argue to the contrary, he also knows that Rorschach is kind of right.

There are a lot of issues there.

That caught Roddy by surprise.

"Ow, what the hell?"

And the explanation...left Roddy even more confused. He was upset because Roddy didn't think he was a monster? Roddy rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. Didn't mean to insult your monstrous street cred. I'm sure you're terrible when it's that time of the month."

"It ain't about street cred! I'm serious, you hear me?" Serious enough to fix Roddy with a stern stare. He's pretty good at looking mean when he wants. "We like you and all, but don't start thinkin' sloppy 'cause of that. Just-"

Ugghhh. Ghoul's face twists in to grimace and he flaps a hand at Roddy to usher him along. "Just get in the damn house."

"Fine," he said, turning, then adding, "And I'm not going to start thinking sloppy."

He knew not to hang around them on the full moon, it was just easy enough to avoid. However, he took the chance the change the subject, and started showing Ghoul inside.

"We can check out the kitchen, first. He sometimes likes to stare creepily at people while they're eating."

Ghoul's not completely satisfied, but it'll do for now. Talking about heavy shit like that is awkward, so he's not going to push the issue if he can get away with it.

Ghosts are a much safer topic than werewolves. Ghosts can't even hurt anything- or at least the one in question can't. He snorts out a quiet laugh. "Jealous 'cause he can't eat anymore?" Actually, now that he's thinking about it... "I'd be pretty mad, too."

"Probably. But I still have to eat, so..."

He wasn't going to stop eating the free food here just because a ghost missed eating.

Roddy led Ghoul into the kitchen. "Well, here it is." Then, looking around he room he said, "Not that I see him here at the moment. Must not be as fun when no one's trying to eat."