undergrounds | open to hillingdon.

Sometime in early June, some posters start appearing in the halls of Hillingdon house. They read CLAN MEETING at the top in big bold letters, with the date, time, and location of the meeting below. Arthur's not looking to give a lot away here, but he tells a few people about it and how important it is to attend, hoping that the word will spread through the faction.

Arthur doesn't know what to anticipate. So far it's been a lot of stand-offish hunters and shifters, and they might not be eager to participate in an initiative that unites them and begets communication. Arthur was like that too, but now there's a need to be prepared and a need to act; getting the information out there is important.

JUNE 7

People are late, of course. Arthur waits until it seems like people have stopped filtering in to start, waiting patiently at the front of one of Hillingdon House's grand ballrooms. He doesn't like being the center of attention, but he's been the lead on more than a few military briefings and debriefings in his day, so he's not totally out of his element in front of everyone there.

He starts with a small introduction, explaining that he's been with the clan for about a year and a half and before that he was in the US military. He leaves out the bit about his special-ops vampire-killing team, of course, but the fact is that he was trained to kill by the biggest military complex in the world.

He then goes on to explain why he called the meeting, telling everyone that Millicent has been murdered - just to get them all on the same page - and that she's been replaced by a far worse leader. Raymond Harris' new rules that Islington's vampires are allowed to feed on locals and that shapeshifter kills are reason enough for Hillingdon to start getting a little more pro-active, not to mention the fact that he'll allow children to be turned now. It's critical for Hillingdon to be prepared, not only for the inevitable rise in bounties, but for a more aggressive vampire population in general.

Not only that, it's critical for the faction to start sharing information between members a little more freely now. Information and skills.

He invites anyone who has more information to speak, and says that he'll offer anyone who wants them some extra training on marksmanship, shooting, hand-to-hand combat, any of the skills he has. He makes it clear that he's not looking for Hillingdon to go on a hunt - they don't need to be tracking down innocent vampires and killing them for sport - but it's time that they become a little more unified so they can use their skills to help deal with this if it gets worse.

[Please use the appropriate headers below if you character wanted to speak up during Arthur's presentation or for mingling! You can also start threads if you want to consolidate any threads that come up as a result of this, so skill sharing etc. If you have any questions feel free to PM me or to plurk me at

dreamalittlebigger!]

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Roddy turned...and cursed under his breath. Sure, he'd known Daryl would be here, but after the last time he saw him...well, he'd been hoping to avoid talking to him. Or looking at him. Or acknowledging his existence. Clearly, that wasn't an option.

"What do you want?" Roddy asked irritably.

Yeah, Daryl probably deserved that. But he still bristled at the tone and it was a visible effort on his part not to let his lips curl into a snarl.

"Wanted to talk," he said after a moment of getting his reaction under control while maintaining eye contact. "'Bout what happened."

Roddy averted his gaze. "What about it?"

It wasn't something he liked focusing on. Being treated like prey, and that's what it had been. It was bad enough that the vampires saw him as food, and he didn't like the reminder that as low as he was on the food chain, other shifters might, too.

Daryl's own eyes shifted away for a second as he resettled his weight and crossed his arms. His fingers curled tightly into the armholes of his vest. He took a deep breath and lifted his chin, looking at Roddy's face. Ready to face him if the kid decided to make eye contact again.

"I'm sorry."

Roddy looked at him, surprised. "You are?"

He didn't know what he was expecting, but he hadn't been prepared for an apology. He also wasn't sure if he should accept it or not, seeing as he didn't know if it was the kind of thing that was going to happen again.

"Does that happen a lot?"

Daryl shook his head, finally dropping his eyes and looking more sheepish than he cared to. But this was hard for him. He had grown up learning how to make other people apologize regardless of who was in the wrong. Learning not to take the blame from anyone but his family.

"No. I don't usually find others when I'm out for a stretch. Things just got... they got out of hand. Was my fault."

"Yeah," he said. It definitely was Daryl's fault, he wasn't going to deny that. But...he wasn't really so much worried about the blame as how he could avoid ending up in that situation in the future.

"I just really hope I don't run into you again when you're...like that. That was fucking terrifying."

And if he saw Daryl about to shift again, he'd probably change back right there and screw modesty. Maybe if he acted fast enough next time, if there was a next time, the situation wouldn't get so far.

Daryl's shoulders hunched further, like he was being verbally dressed down. And, in a sense, he was. He didn't blame Roddy for feeling that way, either.

"Ain't used to being around other shifters when I'm shifted. Usually keep to myself," he admitted. One of his feet lifted so he could scuff the floor next to his other boot. "When I smelled you, I was just curious. Wasn't out to hunt you."

"I couldn't even tell if you knew what I was." And then he'd shifted, and Daryl had still pounced, and that had made it even more terrifying. "But I've only ever been shifted alone or around my dad, and he's another rat, so it's not like there are any issues there."

And with regular animals he might run into, changing back was enough to turn the tables so he wouldn't need to worry about predator and prey relations.

He nodded in understanding, keeping his mouth pressed into a line. Looking about as awkward as he felt. He'd already said he was sorry, so he didn't know what else to say. Daryl lifted his eyes to meet Roddy's for a second. See if there was anything else the kid wanted to say before he wandered off.

Roddy honestly didn't know if there was anything else for Daryl to say. The incident still scared him but...well, Daryl wasn't as scary now that he'd apologized, and now that he was clearly ashamed of how he'd behaved. At least he knew that Daryl wouldn't mean it.

"So...yeah, I guess as long as it doesn't happen again, I'm not pissed off about it anymore."

"Okay." Daryl lifted his head and nodded. After another moment, he took a step back and turned to walk away. It went a lot better than he'd hoped for and he wasn't going to try to press for anything more. He counted himself lucky.

open to hillingdon.

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