Islington Nest Christmas Party, Dec 17 [Open to all Nest members and their guests]

[vampire_barbie_girl]

Caroline has worked hard to put together the evening's event, which is not only a Christmas party but also hopefully a chance for the Nest to celebrate its new leadership. The room at the Angelo has been decorated with a winter wonderland theme which, while not exactly original, is quite lovely.

A string quartet is playing a selection of Christmas and other classical music. Any attempts to feed on the musicians will result in the perpetrator getting thrown out the party, or worse. But feeding on any of the hired help or performers should be unnecessary, since several varieties of "blood punch" are available to drink. There is also food and other drinks available for non-vampire guests and anyone else who wishes to partake.

There is a strict black tie only dress code and Caroline will tell anyone who is under-dressed to go home and change.



[The event is happening on Dec 17th but I wanted to get it up early so everyone had time to do get involved if they so desired.]

Comments

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha just barely holds back a sly response to that. Sarcastically praising Joscelin's restraint might make her feel better briefly, but it wasn't likely to do either of them any good beyond that. Her ego can take the abuse.

Instead, she lay a light, steady hand on his back, her presence deliberately stable as she guides him to a table. It's not the closest empty seat, but it's a quieter part of the room, further from the speakers. She figures he might appreciate a little less sensory overload just now.

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin cringes away from her touch, but he makes no attempt to remove it either. Jean-Claude is usually the only person he will accept physical contact from, and that is only because Jean-Claude saw him at his lowest point since his downfall over a century ago. They have an understanding now. But this? This he only allows because the floor keeps threatening to swing up and hit him. A little stability is welcome.

Christ, he's a lightweight. This is embarrassing.

He sinks into the chair gratefully, happy for the support.

"This is ridiculous."

[outstandingbalance]

Under normal circumstances, Natasha wouldn't dare. She's no coward, but she also has a well honed sense of survival. Her hand floats away from his back as soon as he's seated and she steps to stand beside him, arms crossed behind her.

"It's not ridiculous. It's just biology. Or what passes for it."

[dredefulchilde]

Joss lays his head on the table, for once not minding one bit that others could see him. He feels hot and cold at the same time; the music and lights and voices are almost unbearably intense. He can see the appeal of fae blood, when one takes care not to overindulge. Especially considering the other side effect of the stuff.

"You've experienced this before." It isn't really a question so much as an observation. "How long do the effects last? How long am I invulnerable to sunlight, say?"

[outstandingbalance]

"I couldn't say. My experience comes from very limited exposure." And she's not in a hurry to divulge the details about it, going into her time and her training with Red Room. "If we were going to risk going out in the sun, we went to witches. Just like most everyone else."

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin frowns; this is not news he wanted to hear. If he's going to be laid low by an overdose--for surely that's what this is, given his small size and very low body weight--of fae blood, he wants at least to get some benefit for this inconvenience.

"Damn," he sighs, closing his eyes. "I should like at least to see the sun."

[outstandingbalance]

"Maybe if it were already closer to dawn." Natasha understands the feeling. She hasn't seen the sun herself in over twenty-five years. It might not be long on his lifespan, but it's been almost half her life as a vampire.

But she's cautious. She's heard of vampires drawn into fae blood addiction because of the temptation of the sun.

"Just give it a little time."

[dredefulchilde]

"Damn," Joss sighs again. "I shall have to speak to Jean-Claude again about the return of my ring, should it still exist, or the construction of a new one." He wants the sun. He wants to feel it on his face again. He wants conduct his business during actual business hours rather than skulking about at night like a new-born vampire with no power or privilege. Is that so much to ask?

But there is another, more pressing concern to think about first.

"Did you find yourself craving fae blood immediately after you first tried the stuff?"

[outstandingbalance]

"No, not really." Craving would be a strong word, at least. "I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a temptation, but it was just that: a temptation. It's different for everyone though."

Some people smoke one or two cigarettes and already crave more. Other people can stop cold turkey after years. Most people fall somewhere between the two, though, and more to one side than the other.

"You can cross that bridge when you get to it."

[dredefulchilde]

Joss looks up at Natasha, trying to focus on her face. He can't quite do it. "What a useless fount of information you turned out to be," he says in his usually charming way, but there's no heat in it. In fact, it's almost a term of endearment. Oddly, he rather likes Natasha. She's wrong about everything and far too young and idealistic, but she sticks to it. That's earned her Joscelin's grudging respect.

"Now that Jean-Claude's spoiled all our fun by making hunting humans illegal, what are you going to do?" he asks, changing the conversation. "Are you still going to keep avoiding blood even though now all of it has to be willingly donated?"

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha has learned not to take his barbs too personally. She figures they have more to do with him and what he's going through than they ever have to do with her, and right now Joscelin's not in the best position. She lets his comment glide past without even a comment.

His question, though, that's another thing. Most of the other vampires don't know much about her choices to get on the wagon, or why she refuses to get off. Cesare has gotten some of it, in their sparring, but not all. He made it clear that he was unimpressed with what she did reveal.

Oddly, Kyle knew more about it than anyone else. He isn't around anymore though.

Maybe that was why she considers telling Joss more now. That, or the state he's in, or some perverse desire to correct the assumption that she thought she had some moral high ground compared to others of her kind. Of course, she doubts he'd be any more impressed by the truth than by his assumptions. But at least the record would be straight.

"I don't see how that changes much for me," she says, her tone artificially conversational. "Not drinking human blood never had anything to do with what other vampires were doing."

A brief pause, and she's fairly sure she would leave it there if he were sober. It's the fact he's not that leads her to throw him more information, a sort of apology for seeing him in a vulnerable state.

"You know, my nest—my old nest—had ties to the Communist party back during the Cold War. You would have hated the whole thing. Four hundred year old aristocrats styling themselves komissar and tovarishch instead of dvoryanstvo. Some of us who were younger, we were actual Soviets, but I think most of them found it funny."

Not all of them, but enough. Some had been patriots, no matter what Russia's political class looked like. But that wasn't really the point.

"And it was worth it. Back when they were sending people to the gulags, the nest arranged for some of them to never make it. Instead of Siberia, some of them came to the nest. Even after the labor camps were closed and Stalin's regime was replaced, the system was still in place to make sure that a certain number of political prisoners and dissidents kept coming our way. None of them ever left, of course. That was the deal. Once they were ear marked for the nest, they were just... livestock."

The whole time she speaks, her voice is neutral. There's no overt signs that it bothers her. Just the glossy easiness of her delivery. There's no sign of real emotion at all.

But that seems like enough background for him to get the gist. He's smart. If he's interested, she's sure he could put together what her early years would have been like in that environment. Natasha doesn't intend to explain too deeply; she doubts he really has any interest. So she wraps it up. "It's easier to see people as people when you're not eating them. That's all there is to it. Unless that changes, I don't think I'll be giving up my diet any time soon."

[dredefulchilde]

Joss listens, unusually quiet and with a thoughtful expression on his face. He can see that this means a great deal to Natasha, despite her forced conversational tone, and he's not unsympathetic to it. He wonders, not for the first time, what it would be like if he had the luxury of scruples and a conscience. He'd probably not have lived as long if he'd had. After all, his sire had been fairly moral, for a vampire, and look how she'd ended up.

But humans are livestock, he wants to say, though even in his current state he knows that would be the least constructive thing to to.

Instead, what he says is this:

"Did you choose the change, back then? Were you allowed that choice?"

[outstandingbalance]

"No," she says, almost like it's funny. She hadn't had many choices back then. But that's not why it felt a little like a joke. "I don't it would have occurred to me if I had, though. I didn't have a problem with it at the time. And I adored my sire."

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin thinks about his own death, which is not something that he usually prefers to remember. He'd desperately wanted to die. The fever consuming him, the hot pain in his armpit and groin as the bubos were lanced and bled, the blood in his vomit...death had been a release. He'd been administered the last rites, ready to die in a state of grace and be accepted into God's host...

And then he'd woken in a charnal pit.

"But you knew what was coming?"

[outstandingbalance]

"I did." Which means she has no excuse. But she was a killer ten years or more before she was a vampire, and determined to stay alive regardless of cost. Whatever else she is or has been, Natasha is ever the survivor. That never changed. "There was plenty of opportunity to see what was coming."

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin is quiet. He had been planning to use this information to convince her of her folly, show her how stupid she is being by continuing to refugee blood, and now he can't quite bring himself to do it.

"You are an interesting creature, Miss Romanoff," he says instead.

[outstandingbalance]

"Not really," Natasha says softly. She's almost surprised that he doesn't use this against her. Maybe tell her that she has no room to have buyer's remorse now. Ask her why she was trying to be something different from what she obviously knew herself to be.

She adds with a little more humor, "Confused, maybe."