acrookedchild: (He found a crooked sixpence)
Abigail Widdowson ([personal profile] acrookedchild) wrote in [community profile] undergrounds2015-07-01 07:21 am

Stroke of Midnight [OPEN]

Miss Abigail Widdowson cordially invites you to Geap Manor on Wednesday, July 1st at 19:00.

Food, drinks, and music will be provided.

All are welcome, but individuals are to be aware that any hostilities during the evening's festivities will not be tolerated.


It is the first time in at least a generation that the doors of Geap Manor have been opened to the general population. Or, at least, as general as the supernatural community could be considered. Some invitiations were made personally, but most were formally sent to the higher ranking members of the various factions.

Dinner is announced precisely at 19:30. The small, intimate eating area for the family has been turned into a buffet room. The caterers Abigail hired have obviously been paid well to make sure there is something for everyone. Rich meat dishes, hearty vegetarian dishes, light fish dishes, plenty of accompaniments and finger food. There is also plenty of fairly fresh blood for vampires. For the others, there are wines, water, and tea available.

The grand dining room has had its large table removed, replaced, instead, by small tables that can comfortably hold four. They can, of course, be pushed together to allow for more room.

The ballroom is open to the guests, and the DJ has also been highly paid to make sure the music played is precisely to the hostess's tastes. There is plenty of modern music, good for dancing, as well as older classics. However, interspersed are classical pieces meant for waltzes and foxtrots and other such ballroom dances.

In the sitting room is a drink cart with wine, tea, water, and blood. Chairs and divans are available, as the room is a quiet place, a little away from the ballroom, so conversation can be had with ease. There is an unlit fireplace, and a portrait of Abigail a few years younger than she is now hangs above it.

Most of the rest of the house is locked. One can wander the hallways, but it may prove ultimately fruitless. One who simply walks up the stairways will find the walls of each lined with the Widdowson family portraits of every generation, starting with one of a ten-year-old Abby, her parents, and her six-year-old brother. As one takes in all the paintings, a pattern presents itself. Every Widdowson woman featured is pale, thin, and blonde.

The grounds are beautifully maintained and fenced in by wrought iron on top of stone. A very traditional look for such an imposing manor. On the path from the street to the house, there's little remarkable, save the knocker on the door. Behind the house, however, if one ventures away, one might get the keen sense of something from inside the house watching, waiting, and hungering. On the ground floor, the locked rooms are mostly unremarkable, save for the study at the back of the house. Linger too long near there, and one might hear a sound coming in a pattering set. It isn't a knock against the door, no. Instead, it is the sound of something hitting the wall. If someone were to force their way into the nursery on the second floor or the attic several stories up... Well. They likely won't be coming back to the party. Or to anything.

Wandering, of course, isn't a suggested enterprise. The old house doesn't like people poking around and trying to find its secrets.


(Everyone who has at least a familiarity with the supernatural is welcome, as the invitations were distributed widely. Mingle, make your own top comments, enjoy the food, etc!)
emotioneater: (Smirk)

[personal profile] emotioneater 2015-08-11 08:11 am (UTC)(link)
IN THROUGH THE NOSE, OUT THROUGH THE MOUTH.

Cooper merely gives a grin like the Cheshire Cat. "Yes," he replies in a true mathematician's answer. Heiji isn't the only one who could be silly around here.
detectiveofthewest: (Heiji: just between you and me ♥)

[personal profile] detectiveofthewest 2015-08-11 04:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Cooper Cooper. What a terrible name. His parents should be severely reprimand for contributing to a life of ridicule and low self-esteem.

"Mr. Cooper, then," Heiji said, smiling back. "So, what do you do when you're not enjoying fish or art?"
emotioneater: ....irish vampire (Fuckin shortass...)

[personal profile] emotioneater 2015-08-12 05:56 am (UTC)(link)
Psh, he can't help it if Heiji infers exactly the dumbest things. It doesn't matter, really. Nobody has called him John in the past one-hundred years or so anyway.

"Ride my motorcycle 'round the city. Breathe. Eat. Hunt down the occasional victim. Clip my toenails. I'm boring, really." Except for the part where one of those things was not like the other.
detectiveofthewest: (Heiji: let's do it)

[personal profile] detectiveofthewest 2015-08-12 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Maybe Cooper Squared. Double Cooper. The Coop.

"I'd say I was surprised that was legal, but it seems like they make a lot of allowances for vampires in this town." Like a lot a lot. A surprising amount, considering how little humans generally appreciated having their vital fluids drained.
emotioneater: (A-okay)

[personal profile] emotioneater 2015-08-21 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah. Miss High 'n Mighty has been in power for God knows how long. Temperamental as all get out, but she knows how t'keep the nest in a powerful position." Cooper would take advantage of it for as long as he could. The winds of favor would only blow so long in their direction before changing again.
detectiveofthewest: (Heiji: just between you and me ♥)

[personal profile] detectiveofthewest 2015-08-22 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
"Millicent?" Heiji had never met her, though her reputation sort of preceded her. "What does she do, make ya fetch the evening news? I hear a lot of grumbling about her... but then again, gettin' in good with the Night Council does seem to get ya a lot of perks."
emotioneater: (Default)

[personal profile] emotioneater 2015-09-01 09:29 am (UTC)(link)
"She's alright if you're one of her little pets or you know how t'flatter her. Me, I'm a little too small for her t'notice just yet." He'd get there eventually with time. Cooper wasn't content to be the low man on the totem pole forever, not when he had experienced being high up before.
detectiveofthewest: (Heiji: there there)

[personal profile] detectiveofthewest 2015-09-01 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Heiji tried desperately to keep from smiling or laughing aloud (that would be rude!), but if Cooper kept talking about how small he was, he was simply not going to be able to keep up this level of self-control.

"One of those bosses, huh? Sorry to hear it... but then again, at least you know how to climb the ranks if ya need to!" Cooper would just have to give up a bit of integrity, that was all...

"So you got big plans?"
emotioneater: (Consider this)

[personal profile] emotioneater 2015-09-03 12:45 am (UTC)(link)
Don't laugh, Heiji. Though he was but little, he could still kick you in the shins rather hard.

There was an ambitious glint in Cooper's eyes as he answered. "That I do. It's an interestin' thing, power is. Once you get a taste of it, you tend t'want more 'n more." He'd known what it was like to be second-in-command of a whole nest before. He wanted that back.
detectiveofthewest: (Heiji: yeah well)

[personal profile] detectiveofthewest 2015-09-03 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
If he could reach...

"Wouldn't know about that," said Heiji. Unconsciously, his hand went up to where his cap might be if he was actually wearing it.

"Once you're up top, you got a lot of other problems to worry about. I think freedom is better." Mo' money, mo' problems, in other words, though of course there were some things you simply couldn't do without influence.
emotioneater: (Default)

[personal profile] emotioneater 2015-09-03 09:09 am (UTC)(link)
He can certainly try.

"Yeah, but that's what makes it fun. Problems crop up 'n you gotta solve 'em. Gotta be a good leader before someone more competent than you decides to force you out. Happens all the time." He had some personal experience with that particular situation.
detectiveofthewest: (Heiji: excite)

[personal profile] detectiveofthewest 2015-09-03 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"So what makes a good leader, then?" Surely not bringing donuts in on Fridays. Though he supposed that the definition of a 'good leader' for a human or vampire would not be the same as the definition for the fae. Or a fox. Or a fox fae.

Millicent's brand of leadership appeared to be of the 'crush all that resist me' type.
emotioneater: (I don't tan)

[personal profile] emotioneater 2015-09-03 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Someone strong, decisive, an' who can keep a bunch of bloodsuckers from eatin' each other alive." They had the tendency to start sniping at each other when things got boring. It took a leader with a strong will to keep all of the clashing personalities that made up a nest in line.

"Don't know if she fulfills all of the qualifications, but she's the only leader we got, so..." Cooper shrugs.
detectiveofthewest: (Heiji: just between you and me ♥)

[personal profile] detectiveofthewest 2015-09-03 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"Somehow, I thought it'd be somethin' a little more high-minded," said Heiji, counting his blessings that he was not, in fact, a vampire. His qualifications would run more towards a keen mind, courage, care for one's subjects. The capacity for mercy, though certainly that didn't seem a highly-valued trait among the fae of London.

"I mean, you've got hundreds of years to come up with a really fancy charter, right?" Certainly the Night Council at least seemed to have a handful of rules to govern behavior, as much as Heiji didn't approve of some of them.
emotioneater: (Different)

[personal profile] emotioneater 2015-09-05 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
"Just because someone is hundreds of years old doesn't mean they have any wisdom in their heads." Cooper himself was living proof of such a theory. "For all we try t'act above it all, there's part of a vampire that still stays human, no matter how old you get."

Cooper paused. "Though I will deny it in front of the others, so don't go spreadin' it around."
detectiveofthewest: (Heiji: whatcha say?)

[personal profile] detectiveofthewest 2015-09-05 03:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"Not like I know any other vampires," said Heiji, which was his way of reassuring Cooper that his secret was safe. For his part, he'd never been human in the first place, and only his close proximity to them over the years had helped him understand some of their more erratic behaviors -- though it seemed to him that they, too, were animals like any other.

"But I'm a little surprised to hear that. I woulda thought compartmentalizing would be key to makin' it as a vampire. After all, most of them drink human blood, don't they?"
emotioneater: (Default)

[personal profile] emotioneater 2015-09-07 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
"What sort of rules you have tends t'vary from vampire to vampire. Me, I just drain people I won't feel guilty about possibly killin'. I don't need t'be feeling miserable when I wake up the next night." Cooper was an odd sort in that respect. Most vampires killed without feeling anything. He'd been that way when he was young, confused, and bloodthirsty. Growing older had mellowed the vampire some. Now, he took prey as he saw fit, keeping away from those people that he already knew.