You're gonna go far kid (OPEN)

[youronlylaw]

Private for Sylvia

James wouldn't dareask Slyvia to meet him somewhere when it was him asking a favor of her. A pretty big one too. He makes an appointment to see her, like anyone else. Unlike anyone else however, James is trying for clever and inwardly is tempted to just turn around and walk away right now and pretend none of this ever happened to begin with.

But then it's his turn to walk into the dragon's den. So he smiles, small and polite. Not too sure how to address her, he starts simply - with a brief nod and a greeting of,

"Madame President."


Private for Norrell

The day just after meeting with Sylvia, James has arranged to meet with Norrell in his own Night Council offices- he's pulling out all the punches for this attempt at diplomacy and is practically willing to sell his own mother (practically) to get Norrell to help him.

He's never had any real dealings with a Daybreak witch and thus holds no opinions of them over anyone else. Abigail Widdowson, however, does hold his ear a little better thanks to their brief associations before they became anything of note in the political climate.

Knowing Norrell's opinions (how could anyone not?) on werewolves, James is going to approach this like he would any client and starts with a smile.

"I appreciate you making the time to speak with me. I understand you have much to do."


Private for Abigail

After Abigail's voicemail and ensuing conversation with her, James asked to meet her in person to discuss things in more detail at the restaurant they first met at. It's meant to serve as a reminder that they'd tried before to ally and found that neither had something the other would need or even want in an alliance - both of them being too low on the totem pole at that time.

And now look at them both. Maiden of Witches and a new Alpha.

"Miss. Widdowson." James greets her like he would an old friend when she is escorted to their table.

The same bottle of wine - at least the same vintage - is on the table as last time.

This time however, two glasses are already poured.


Private for Eames & Finnick

Though all of his meetings these past few days have been difficult, this is probably the one that demands the most from him. With the two Seelie Lords, James knows they've had their hands tied rather severely, and it wouldn't be advantageous to ignore that. His intent is to take Havering out of their hands while the election occupies a large portion of the public attention in the supernatural community - but if he can arrange a peaceful and agreeable takeover...well, he'd rather try and say he made the attempt before taking action.

"Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, gentlemen."

James has asked to meet them both in their own territory - specifically Bromley, near the border of Greenwich in a little cafe that is quiet and cozy. He doesn't anticipate having to make a hasty exit but if he has to, James would rather know exactly where he needed to go than wander deep into Fae territory and be in some potential danger.

He's reserved the backroom of the business for their purposes and has no traps or pack members to back him up. James does not anticipate this ending violently.

Drinking - Jolly Roger

What a week. James has decided to actually get willfully sloshed tonight and has visited his least favorite bar, the Jolly Roger. The only reason he's here is because Skip works here and knowing someone behind the bar means his glass is rarely empty - even if she wasn't here.

He's about halfway through his first glass when his phone vibrates angrily on the bartop and James looks at it like he wants to dunk it into his glass and forget about it.

"Can this election just be over?"


Settling pack disputes - Redbridge - first responder

Lupercalia was still managing to bite James in the ass two months later. The small but long lived pack that had hunted one of their older members to sacrifice to ensure a new year of young, activated wolves would take their place down and eventually lead him to James' door to plead for sanctuary.

As such, now that the festival was over, James went to the pack hoping that they would allow him to rejoin his family and live the remainder of his life in peace.

Apparently, that didn't go over well.

James can be found in a small park, bent over and leaning against a tree nursing what looks like a broken nose back into place as it slowly healed. There seems to be the remnants of bruises and cuts on his face and under his shirt - the only sign of them being the small pinpricks of blood that have soaked through his clothing and the small slashes in his shirt.

In short - he looks a mess.

As he straightens himself, James looks down at his jacket and notices that the seam of his shoulder has torn. This is apparently the straw that breaks his back as his face crumples for a moment and he mutters (loudly) a single, "Fuck."


WILDCARD
James can be found anywhere in the city you would like to encounter him, if you would like something more specific tailored to you - we can work that out, PP cupcakepantry or PM my journal!

Comments

Jolly Roger

[protagonized]

Simon is nursing his third beer at the bar, hoping that Skip will show up. Their date the other night hadn't exactly gone well after he caught her dancing and he wants to apologize. In person. Somehow, he doesn't think a text message will do it.

But Skip isn't here and he's getting dangerously close to Sad Drunk mode. He's wallowing. Oh poor Simon, whose not-girlfriend isn't around and whose best friend is stuck in another country because his visa expired. Boo hoo.

Someone's phone buzzes loudly against the bar and he looks up suddenly, automatically reaching to see if it's his even though he knows very well that his is in his pocket. He looks over at the owner just in time to hear him curse the election. Even with the alcohol deadening his sense of smell, he can tell what the man is. Oh, a werewolf. Naturally.

"It's only another few weeks," he points out helpfully.

[youronlylaw]

"Cheers to that," James raises his cup in a quasi-formal toast and downs the rest of his glass quickly.

The grimace might tell Simon that he is not drinking because he enjoys it, rather because he wants to get drunk.

As James turns his head towards the voice that spoke up, he scents the air instinctively - at first picking up stale beer, sweat, and magic but then picking out a scent he knows well...

one that belongs to Skip's 'boyfriend'. And his indirect competition.

He looks, for a moment, like he places the boy but as he's never seen him before - only smelled him - he looks more like he's just trying to memorize the kid's face.

"Come here often?"

He tries not to sound too rude, and probably succeeds. Probably.

[protagonized]

The way the man looks at Simon is a bit unsettling. Simon's reasonably sure he's never met the man before, but his scent is vaguely familiar. The younger man chalks it up to the whole werewolf thing; he's met a few of them now and they really are all rather distinct.

"Not so much. A friend works here. Wanted to see if she was working tonight; guess not."

Why is this man so familiar? It's incredibly disconcerting.

[youronlylaw]

Suddenly a grin splits across his face and he laughs a little - because that's exactly what he was here for. The fact that it was the same girl made it extremely funny.

"Well don't worry about it too much. Maybe you'll get lucky tomorrow."

James flags down the bartender - a young man; metahuman by the smell of power on him - and orders another drink for himself and belatedly asks for a second of whatever Simon was nursing.

When the arrive, James holds his glass up in a proper toast this time.

"Better luck tomorrow?"

He thinks that works as a toast.

[protagonized]

Simon accepts the toast with a thoroughly bemused expression on his face. He isn't going to argue with someone who wants to buy him alcohol, but he doesn't quite understand anything the man is talking about. "Yeah, maybe," he agrees without really knowing what he's agreeing to. "Better luck tomorrow."

Now he's in the awkward position of having to talk with a werewolf who is obviously well into his cups and is a little overly friendly in a way that almost feels hostile. What's with the alpha male-ing?

"Thanks for that," he says, because the guy did just buy him a beer. "I'm Simon."

[youronlylaw]

Alpha-male'ing is exactly what he was doing - whether purposely or not, who could say?

"James." He offers in return. Where Simon sees an obligation to speak with James, it doesn't seem he feels the same and he pokes around on his phone to see what the hell it was buzzing for.

By his look, it's not what he wanted to see. James polishes off his drink a second time.

[protagonized]

They fall into another awkward silence and Simon continues to sip his beer, wondering if the social contract obligates him to keep feigning interest in the weirdly aggressive werewolf just until he's finished the free drink or if he has to stick around afterward and buy the next round.

Jesus fuck, this is painful. When is Skip going to show up?

"Nice to meet you, James," he lies, and then pulls out his own phone. So far he seems to have the night off from Guardian work, though that will likely change. Honestly, he wouldn't mind if it did. It's a good excuse to get him away from here. Hopefully while he's still moderately sober.

"Bad news?" He asks James, trying to figure out the best way to excuse himself.

[youronlylaw]

James shrugs with irritability clearly written on his face.

"Can you be fed up with an election you're not allowed to participate in?"

It's a rhetorical question, but his point is there and rather telling to his bad mood tonight.

[protagonized]

Ah. That.

Simon lets out a small, mirthless laugh. "I think you've got a right."

Werewolves and the goddamn election. This is turning out to be quite the topic of conversation lately.

"You're not missing much. It's more of an anointing than an election anyway. Everyone's going to get reelected; nothing's going to actually change."

[youronlylaw]

By the slight snarl that picks up on James' face - it's not quite as 'eh' of a subject to wolves as it may be to Simon. Which is, honestly, to be expected; people don't know what privileges they have until they're stripped of them. James, unfortunately, doesn't even know why. He's too new to the community and has no mentor figure to go to for this. He's very much flying by the seat of his pants, here.

"It's more important than that, I'm afraid."

He says it under his breath, and comes back up with a smile. A pointed one that he shrugs with.

"At least we're not missing much."

[protagonized]

Well, that was the wrong thing to say.

Simon backs up a little. The last thing he wants is to get stuck fighting an angry werewolf in a seedy bar. "I know, I'm sorry. It was a joke. A bad one, turns out." He signals to the barman to refill whatever it is that his companion is drinking.

"It's a fucked-up system. It really is. I work for the Night Council and I see it every day."

[youronlylaw]

The admittance makes James lose his edge and his brow furrows as he tries to place Simon's face. He knows him by smell better than anything, much as he didn't want to think about that. But if he worked for the Council then he must have seen him in person before.

"How long have you been working there?"