Magic's in the make-up~ [nighttime, mid-November]

[vampire_barbie_girl]

Caroline hadn't known what to expect when the box was delivered. She ordered a fair amount of things online - especially now that her shopping hours were so limited - but she was pretty sure this wasn't one of them. She was even more sure when she opened the box and discovered a bottle of perfume inside. She definitely hadn't order that.

It wasn't until a few days later that she actually tried it on. And when she did, it actually good. Like, really good.

And so, the next time she had a night off, she decided to pull out a super cute outfit, spent half an hour on her make-up, put on a generous amount of the perfume and headed out the door. She wasn't exactly sure where she was going but it really didn't matter. She just knew it was going to be an exciting night.

[Caroline's perfume has some strange properties, naturally. It will make her highly attractive to anyone of a different supernatural type and utterly repulsive to any vampires. There is no effect on humans. Feel free to run into her anywhere in London that is at least somewhat safe for a vampire to be.]

Comments

[longterm]

Cesare is on the prowl. Well, to his credit, prowl is a bit of a strong word for it. Prowl implies a deliberate search for prey. Cesare is waiting for it to come to him instead. He had felt like a change from his regular haunt of his hotel, having felt a dash of cabin fever set in, and so he went to some cocktail bar off the West End, the type with neon blue mood lighting where you could hear the person you were talking to, but only barely. But that is as far as he's going tonight. He's not exactly on an active hunt. If someone who seems appetizing enough ventures up to him, he'll likely flirt for a few minutes then take them back to his hotel to consume-ate, but other than that's he's fairly casual.

He's settled at the bar, drinking scotch when he catches sight of Caroline. She's a vampire, he can tell, one he hasn't seen before, which is odd. He looks her over for a second and smiles, encouraging her to come over and sit with him, if she would like.

[vampire_barbie_girl]

The guy at the bar is pretty hot but the last time she thought that, things didn't exactly go well. However, she doesn't want to let that stop her, especially not on her first real night out in a while. So she smiles back and heads over to the seat beside him.

"What are you having?" she asks.

[longterm]

It's when she approaches him that something seems off, and as she gets closer, it becomes even worse. He doesn't understand why, but for some reason, he's finding her increasingly off-putting. She's beginning to get on his nerves already. Nevertheless, he puts on a good face. He pushes his scotch aside.

"Whatever you are," he says with a smirk before calling the bartender over and telling him to put whatever drink she asks for on his tab, and make it two.

[vampire_barbie_girl]

Caroline thinks about that for a moment, before ordering them two martinis - always a classic. "So," she says with a smile, "do you come here often?"

[longterm]

Cesare smirks at her words. At least it's a classic line.

"Not yet. I only just came back to England," he responds. At least, only just in vampire terms. Six months is a mere blink when you live for so long. "I was in the US before."

[vampire_barbie_girl]

She nodded. "I just moved here myself. I grew up in Virginia. Mystic Falls, if you've ever heard of it." So far, no one in London had - not that she'd really expected them too.

[longterm]

Cesare just smiles at her, the way you do when you're talking about something entirely more suggestive.

"I haven't I'm afraid. Is it nice?" He leans in to mention something slightly more racy but then he feels a pull towards repulsion once more. He moves back, his eyes narrowing, trying to figure out quite what it is. She's cute. She seems nice. Why is he finding her so gross right now?

[dirtyredneck]

Daryl wasn't really a bar hound. But every so often he made his way to one. Mostly in the 'safe for everyone' territories that weren't really safe for everyone but at least got him in a crowd that wasn't likely to recognize him. Particularly as he preferred the ones frequented by mortals and the non-supernatural for his getaways.

And normally he ignored everyone in them save for the bartender when he was seeking a few hours of being alone in the middle of a crowd. But a scent caught his nose as he passed the bar of the place he'd found himself in and his head swiveled to find it's source before he could stop himself. He slowed down and shut his eyes, inhaled it deeply. And by the time he was moving his feet, he was heading right toward the source.

It was a woman he recognized. One of Jean-Claude's supporters. Maybe it was the lack of blood covering her tonight, but he hadn't noticed during the fight how damn attractive she actually was. Still on the young side in apperance, but she had to be over twenty, right? Being a vampire and all. Was probably in her hundreds.

He moved in to lean against the bar next to her, inserting himself between her and another guy who was clearly trying to flirt. Cut him off entirely and ignored the protests coming from behind him as he lifted his chin and gave her a long once over.

"Hey."

smooth, daryl, smooth

[vampire_barbie_girl]

Caroline had been having a lovely conversation with the guy beside her when she spotted the shapeshifter from the battle the other night enter the bar. She was surprised when he started coming her way and fast - and even more surprised when he settled in right beside her.

"Um ... hi."

[dirtyredneck]

She said 'hi' back. That was the first hurdle to get over, wasn't it? Daryl didn't really know. He had no personal experience to pull on. Just decades of bad advice from his brother and father. Mostly his brother. And his brother got laid all the time, so it had to work.

"You uh... you ain't busy, right?" he attempted a friendly smile and pointed at her drink, "Could buy you another."

[vampire_barbie_girl]

This was ... strange. But the man had helped Jean-Claude, which meant he at least didn't think all vampires deserved to die. And so she decided to humour him, at least for a bit.

"No, I'm not busy." She caught the eye of the guy she'd been talking to before, shrugging helplessly. "And uh, I'm not quite done with this one but maybe when I am."

[dirtyredneck]

Daryl shifted his body again to block any direct line of sight to the guy behind him as if he was just adjusting his own casual lean. He had to stop pretending that's all it was when the guy cleared his throat and tapped on his arm. His 'I was here first' was cut off with a quick glare and a low-throated growl tossed over Daryl's shoulder telling him wordlessly to back the hell off.

The guy apparently knew the type Daryl was being at that moment and took his drink and walked, tossing an apologetic look at Caroline but not otherwise challenging the suddenly hostile other man.

Daryl's manner eased back into that hopeful and somewhat casual manner when he turned back to Caroline. Whatever anger he'd had at the interference seemingly gone. He was doing his best to continue to look friendly and give a flirtatious smile. "Could get a table while you're finishing it. Do some talkin' maybe."

[vampire_barbie_girl]

Pretty much all of Caroline's instincts said hell no to that invitation. And yet she found herself nodding and heading for a table, partially because of a feeling of loyalty and partially because of sheer curiosity.

"I don't think I caught your name before," she said as she took her seat. "I'm Caroline."

lemme know if you'd like an edit or to do this thread elsewhere/some other time

[akillersmile]

Kyle was wandering the city, exploring as he liked to do. This time, he ended up in Picadilly in the evening, watching cars go by and checking out various shops here and there. A comic shop couldn't his interest as much as it once could when he was younger and he felt too restless for a cafe. Instead, he mostly hit the pavement, turning down side streets and returning to the area's center at random.

When he saw the blonde he recognized, he very nearly called out to her, then paused as he remembered their last interaction. When they'd first met, he'd wanted to sleep with her and probably would have if not for his guilt over Alex. He'd broken his promise to see her sing. Then she'd admitted to being a vampire, to supporting the Nest and feeding on human blood, albeit indirectly.

But he'd heard about some of the goings on of the Nest, about killing off the head, as if that would somehow make the desolate creatures more humane with a better leader. He'd heard she might have been involved. So he took a deep breath and jogged the short distance to catch up to her.

"Hot date?" He asked casually, as if they were old friends instead of whatever they were now. No smile, but no scowl. Kyle still had trouble shaking the feeling of betrayal at her refusal to leave the Nest.

works for me!

[vampire_barbie_girl]

Out of all the people who might approach her on the street, Kyle was probably the person Caroline expected least. In fact, she probably would have been less surprised to see Stefan.

She looked over at him warily. She wasn't sure what they were to each other at this point but it was definitely not friends. "Not that it's any of your business, but no."

[akillersmile]

Kyle slid around Caroline to stand in front of her, ideally stopping her from where she was going. He kept a small distance, friendly without being intimate, and slid his hands into his pockets. If a fight should break out between them, he wasn't actually sure which of them would win, but he was still hopeful that it was something he would never know the answer to.

"I heard a rumor that Raymond's gone." No point in beating around the bush.

[vampire_barbie_girl]

Caroline did stop, maintaining the distance between them. She was fairly certain he wasn't going to try anything but not certain enough to let her guard down completely.

"Yes, I was there," she told him. "He's very dead."

[akillersmile]

He frowned a little. While they hadn't been close before and their last interaction had been anything but positive, it still disappointed Kyle to see her so distrusting of him. The soldier pulled his hands from his pockets to cross his arms instead, suddenly feeling on the defensive.

"Did you help?" His voice was infinitely more nonchalant than his posture. Because it was Kyle and he couldn't exactly help it, he gave her a smile, trying to lighten things up. "Come on, Caroline. I'm not going to hurt you. If you make me have to fight you, like if you attack someone I care about or attack me or whatever, then I'll tell you I'm going to attack you before I do. Deal?"

He dropped his crossed arms, offering her a hand as a gesture of good will.

[vampire_barbie_girl]

It was hard not to be defensive, since that last conversation. Not just because she knew he hated vampires but because the whole thing had hurt her. Especially when he just walked away.

But he was here now, offering at least a small olive branch. She sighed and tried to look a bit more relaxed. "Okay. But if we're going to talk about this, I'm going to need a drink."

[catphishing]

Being human, the perfume wouldn't do anything for him, but he still looks pleased to see her when he spots her in a bar. Maybe he's not exactly the right company to appreciate the way she's dressed up completely, but at least he'll probably still buy her a drink.

"Hey! Caroline, right?"

[vampire_barbie_girl]

Caroline smiles when she recognizes Oliver, then heads towards him. "Hey, how's it going?"

[catphishing]

"Pretty good," he tells her, and it's then he takes note of the way she's dressed. It's fancy. Fancy enough he glances around her, trying to see if she was already talking to someone. He can't see anyone, but maybe her date's just gone to the bathroom.

"Big night?"

[vampire_barbie_girl]

She shrugged. "Not really, I just felt like getting dressed up and heading out the door. The last couple of weeks were a bit hectic, to say the least." The whole murdering the former leader of her faction thing had been especially "hectic."

[catphishing]

His play of employment being what it is he's heard rumors, and he suspects what she might be from their last conversation even if she didn't outright tell him, but he has no way of being certain. Much less that she was actually involved in the events he's heard hinted of in Islington.

Even if he was sure, he's not close enough to ask her how she's doing, or for more details. So he doesn't. He lets the conversation linger on lighter topics. If things have been hectic, she probably needs that no matter what they were.

"I guess there's no rule saying you need a reason. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't interrupting anything."

[vampire_barbie_girl]

When she realizes he thought she was on a date, Caroline smiles. "That's very sweet but you're definitely not interrupting anything at all." Not that she would turn down an offer, if she got one that sounded good. "How about you? Anything exciting plans for the evening?"